Eskom’s Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, on Wednesday 14 February, launched a mobile groundwater desalination plant, which will take care of the station’s water needs, thus easing the pressure on the City of Cape Town’s water supply.
Velaphi Ntuli, Koeberg Power Station Manager, says: “The desalination plant is part of Koeberg’s three-pronged water management strategy to address the current water shortages in the Western Cape, while ensuring that the plant is able to provide safe and sustainable electricity.”
This strategy includes reducing the power station’s daily water usage, keeping adequate on-site water storage and looking at alternative water supplies (groundwater and sea-water).
“When the City of Cape Town called on the people of the Western Cape to address the water issue, we had to respond with a sustainable solution as a responsible corporate citizen,” Ntuli said. “To this end, we have saved approximately 115 000 kl since last June, compared to previous averages.
“This equates to the City of Cape Town supplying 10,5 kl of water to approximately 11 000 houses for a month. Our water tanks are kept full to cater for emergencies. Koeberg, Africa’s only nuclear power station, has an installed capacity of 1 860 MW, which provides 50% of the province’s, and approximately 5,6% of the country’s, energy needs.
It has operated safely and efficiently for 33 years.
This power station can operate only for about two weeks without off-site potable water.
The desalination solution was therefore quite important to ensure continuity of supply.
Koeberg saves 22 billion litres of fresh water per annum, as its condensers are cooled by sea water, which is returned to the sea after use.
