0:00 Introduction 0:52 The Water Treatment Plant 4:07 Fuel Oil 7:15 Coal Stockpiles 10:24 Crushing and Burning the Coal 19:34 Overview of Steam and Turbines 21:04 The Generator Floor 28:05 Cooling the Generator 33:40 Overview of Measuring Generator Voltage and Current 35:42 Generator Busbars 36:24 Stepping up the Generator Voltage 39:32 Why Voltage must be Stepped Up 44:26 The Sound of 400kV 46:43 The Dry Cooling System 47:37 The Sound of Kusile's Dry Cooling System 50:12 Powering the Plant: Unit Transformer 53:23 Byproducts and Pollution 56:25 The Control Room 1:00:30 Managing the Power Plant 1:13:33 Credits
Musa Ngwane knows his job,it sounds like he knows everything there as a senior engineer. He is the person who should explain to the county when things are not working. He should be the minister of electric or the next Eskom ceo. Great stuff, Mfo ka Ngwane.
coal gas oil is about 25% efficient and 10% loss due to continous generation (NO storage for excess electricity production) so its really 15% efficient... no wonder theres global warming !
I am so proud of the engineers at Kusile Power Station. This video made me so happy as the talent at Kusile Power Station was showcased. This video proves that there are capable engineers in South Africa. Keep up the good work all technical staff at Eskom!
Beautiful content, just what we need in South Africa, our own Megastructures content, very inspiring especially for the kids, students and pupils, Please do more, the biggest dams, biggest sewer treatment plants, Biggest Water Treatment Plant, deepest mine, longest road construction projects and so on .... include drone images too, talk to me for that.
"Was" an ATM... Corruption was rife... Being addressed... For example... British ex CEO subcontractor who misappropriated over one billion rand has been extradited and is facing seven charges... 🇿🇦
Thank you for this very informative and technically well explained documentary. Hats off to all the dedicated Engineers and Technicians who are keeping this vital infrastructure running 24/7.
I am proud to have been part of the team that built this powerstation, i was there when Unit 1 was built and left few days after it got commissioned😅 we used to earn a lot of money yoh as Artisans i miss those days
Excellent content and greatly presented. As someone who who studied mechanical engineering, I could relate easily. I just don't understand why it's taking so long to complete this project, seems like it is cash cow for certain connected individuals.
I'm so happy to see South Africans with the ability to explain and take us through the details of electricity production. It shows some progress in education and capacitating ordinary people in running mega-projects. We need to see more of this type documentation in other fields as well.
South Africans are always good, is just the ANC tht has undermined us by importing poor & cheap labour from countries they're in exile and those countries tht said they supported their nonsense freedom struggle cowards. This is a good country more of out ANC government out of power, they're destroyers of good infrastructure built by apartheid government izinja
Eskom Top performing General Manager is Mr Terrence Masilela, the power stations are coming back to life because of his , one the best Engineers buy far😇😇
All your videos are amazing,I've become the handyman of my friends and family by learning from your channel, I really like this longer format documentary video, super cool and informational, more so than anything you'll find on TV today.
We need content like these to motivate, encourage our learners and also to teach citizens what is happening behind that switch or plug in their homes. This is great
Im glad they being guided by engineering people instead of some marketing person who knows nothing about the plant. Engineers on this clip knows their job because they can explain the process smoothly and in basic terms for anyone to understand.
Brilliant feature. Brings back memories of m earlier working days 40 years ago on steam power station construction though much smaller than Kusile (only 4 x 250MW gas/oil/coal fired sub-critical). Great places steam power stations.
A very informative video explaining the broad process used in coal fired boilers for electricity generation. There are some discrepancies about the process and equipment though, specifically in relation to Kusile.
i fell in love with boilers from starting my new job dealing with a 5mw firetube boiler, i have been running it for five years from water to the final product, what a beautiful feat of engineering i just wished people didn't take this stuff for granted, we would be making a lot better decisions politically.
This was a very interesting watch. It would have been nice if you were to ask what their efficiencies are. One of the advantages of supercritical power plants is their high efficiency, but it would be nice to know the actual efficiency numbers.
@@gregorymalchuk272 Thanks Gregory! So this power station is not too far behind the most efficient. It's sad that we cannot operate at much higher temperatures to increase efficiency more, but I assume that would need a different working fluid.
@@ThisRandomUsername Materials science and first cost including cost of materials is what limits initial steam conditions. The hottest superheaters are barely dabbling with austenitic stainless steels. I don't know of any station using inconel or other super alloys in superheaters. One way around this is increasing the average temperature of heat addition to the cycle with double reheat. All of the most efficient thermal power stations are double reheat, Philo Unit 5, Eddystone, Nordylland, Avogdore, Wai Gao Qiao Unit 3, etc.
Thanks for an informative look at how and where our electricity comes from. Questions -When a power station first starts up, from what you've shown, it would require outside power, yes? If so, where would that come from? Once it is producing "its own power", I assume the power station consumes its own power, where required, yes?
There must be external power during the start-up. This is obtained via the transmission grid by another power station or, if none are available during a national blackout, this power will be obtained from pumped storage stations in the Drakensberg
Interesting that hydrogen gas is used for generator cooling....I believe it supresses arcing as well. Also, what kind of huge inverter do they have to energize the stator? If anyone wants to see what power plant control rooms look like, a YT channel called "The Proper People" features urban explorers that have visited closed power stations.... beautiful engineering and classic art deco architecture. This plant is on another level - however one feels about coal, it's clear that they're doing everything they can to make it more efficient. Someday this plant will be energized by geothermal or fusion, who knows?
Simcity 2000 first taught me the word "power plant" when I was 6 years old. Back then, I thought it was the facility that grew special plants that gave off electricity. That's when I had to learn the hard way that it's more complicated than that.
Three crucial units at Kusile, the problematic, unfinished power station beset by fire and the collapse of a flue duct, which is at the heart of the corruption case against former acting Eskom CEO Matshela Koko, are all expected to be back online by the end of the year.11 Sept 2023 “Only 10 years late and 1000% over budget
Evening peak.Every country has a different peak time. Depends on climate, heating or air conditioning demands. Or people cooking food and making hot drinks.
the demand ramps up from afternoon as the millions of people go home to cook and bathe collectively is a huge demand. This is also the time when consumers use most of their electricity, lights, TVs etc...
Eskom Top Performing Power Station General Manager to date is( Mr Terrence Masilela ), powers are coming back to life under his leadership best engineer by far.😅😅
Why must coal be supplied to Kusile by truck? Wasn't Kusile built at this location so that coal could be supplied by conveyor belt, as at other power stations?
Excellently presented. But still for me the transition to renewables with storage should be much swifter. SCATEC PV with BESS at Kenhardt is a good example and there are international investors on standby for more. Go smaller, modular and less centralised. Have privately owned storage added to all new and existing Solar and Wind parks and provide regulations so that storage can be operated profitably by investors.
09:30 - There is no point anywhere in the operations of electricity production where Eskom Kusile Power Station "wets" the stored coal to avoid spontaneous combustion. The coal is simply compactified immediately after it is offloaded from the trucks to eliminate development of air pockets within the heap.
Eskom did not allow us to show the footage in the control room owing to the law in SA. The control room is considered a key point and not allowed to be in the media.
There actually no need to use the HP, IP and LP stages of having the generator turned.. I work for a company that’s uses methane gas fueled SGT 400 SIEMENS turbines which run at minimum 9600 output power where 2 eskom turbines can be interconnected and run at the same speed. How I hope super heated steam can be done away with and have methane gas generate our electricity NO MORE LOADSHEDDING FOR SA.
Nice thought but as long as we have the ANC interfering in any system things are not going to work like intended. Railways Harbours Post Office Denel you name it and we can see the decay. There was a similsr video about a power station in the U.K.. difference is like chalk an cheese.
Those big gas turbines drive a generator off their output shaft. The hot exhaust gases go to steam generator raise steam for use in a steam turbine to drive generator also. Its called a combined cycle gas turbine power plant. You won't get away easily from steam in thermal power generation.
The only cost-effective way to use methane for base load power generation is to use the hot turbine exhaust to boil water to drive a steam turbine which provides about a third of the power.
Same as we have here in UK, 3000rpm to give 50Hz. Sadly we are getting rid of all our coal fired stations, not much in the way of effective replacements though 🙄
What an engineering disaster. I subcontracted on this project and re-done some jobs three times over due to other contractors destroying the work. There is a good reason why it went billions over budget and everything is constantly breaking down. Corruption ans sub standard construction work.
And they never have coal or oil. How does that work. This power station is one of South Africa's biggest disaster. I have been there when they were still building it. The contractors were not very positive for it to work properly.
0:00 Introduction
0:52 The Water Treatment Plant
4:07 Fuel Oil
7:15 Coal Stockpiles
10:24 Crushing and Burning the Coal
19:34 Overview of Steam and Turbines
21:04 The Generator Floor
28:05 Cooling the Generator
33:40 Overview of Measuring Generator Voltage and Current
35:42 Generator Busbars
36:24 Stepping up the Generator Voltage
39:32 Why Voltage must be Stepped Up
44:26 The Sound of 400kV
46:43 The Dry Cooling System
47:37 The Sound of Kusile's Dry Cooling System
50:12 Powering the Plant: Unit Transformer
53:23 Byproducts and Pollution
56:25 The Control Room
1:00:30 Managing the Power Plant
1:13:33 Credits
They are still using brushes on generator 😮😮😮. It's very tiresome, inspection and maintenance.
Musa Ngwane knows his job,it sounds like he knows everything there as a senior engineer. He is the person who should explain to the county when things are not working.
He should be the minister of electric or the next Eskom ceo.
Great stuff, Mfo ka Ngwane.
We need channels like this to actually give engineers bk their voice,instead of politicians and journalists who actually failed maths
Absolutely... 😂
thank you!
Amen
i am so proud of this guy, he speaks sense with confidence, i see the next CEO of eskom who understands the process of power generation
Unfortunately Politics will get in the way
coal gas oil is about 25% efficient and 10% loss due to continous generation (NO storage for excess electricity production) so its really 15% efficient...
no wonder theres global warming !
I am so proud of the engineers at Kusile Power Station. This video made me so happy as the talent at Kusile Power Station was showcased. This video proves that there are capable engineers in South Africa. Keep up the good work all technical staff at Eskom!
Beautiful content, just what we need in South Africa, our own Megastructures content, very inspiring especially for the kids, students and pupils, Please do more, the biggest dams, biggest sewer treatment plants, Biggest Water Treatment Plant, deepest mine, longest road construction projects and so on .... include drone images too, talk to me for that.
KUSILE is a ATM for the connected.
Very true especially if you are part of the cartels
🤔interesting
"Was" an ATM...
Corruption was rife...
Being addressed...
For example...
British ex CEO subcontractor who misappropriated over one billion rand has been extradited and is facing seven charges...
🇿🇦
Thank you for this very informative and technically well explained documentary. Hats off to all the dedicated Engineers and Technicians who are keeping this vital infrastructure running 24/7.
some of the time
Love your channel dude! Keep up the great work!!
Thanks a lot
Very professional and informative
This is a brilliant video. Well explained and I like the notes that popup every now and then
I am proud to have been part of the team that built this powerstation, i was there when Unit 1 was built and left few days after it got commissioned😅 we used to earn a lot of money yoh as Artisans i miss those days
Hope they bring you back
Excellent content and greatly presented. As someone who who studied mechanical engineering, I could relate easily. I just don't understand why it's taking so long to complete this project, seems like it is cash cow for certain connected individuals.
Thanks
I'm so happy to see South Africans with the ability to explain and take us through the details of electricity production. It shows some progress in education and capacitating ordinary people in running mega-projects. We need to see more of this type documentation in other fields as well.
South Africans are always good, is just the ANC tht has undermined us by importing poor & cheap labour from countries they're in exile and those countries tht said they supported their nonsense freedom struggle cowards. This is a good country more of out ANC government out of power, they're destroyers of good infrastructure built by apartheid government izinja
Anyone with high school education should be able to explain electricity generation
@Musa ,very knowledgeable and easy going youngman keep up the good work learnt a lot from this humble engineer!
Excellent presentation of the generation process!... Well done!!
Eskom Top performing General Manager is Mr Terrence Masilela, the power stations are coming back to life because of his , one the best Engineers buy far😇😇
very detailed. This is excellent! Well done to all involved.
Great channel - thanks for sharing all your knowledge.
Ae you know, your work station bra yaka danko vir die hard werk sacrificing for your country risking life.
WOW THATS WAS WELL EXPLAINED, THANKS FOR DOING THIS DOCUMENTARY...
Can't wait til' Eskom hires me to work here
Nice stuff. Very informative and great watch for newly appointed engineer. Keep up the good work!
Well done very knowledgeable and informative.im Zimbabwean and work at a power station 👌
All your videos are amazing,I've become the handyman of my friends and family by learning from your channel, I really like this longer format documentary video, super cool and informational, more so than anything you'll find on TV today.
thank you
Very knowledgeable young engineer .
We need content like these to motivate, encourage our learners and also to teach citizens what is happening behind that switch or plug in their homes. This is great
Should hav said "Kusile" is a Nguni word, because in Zulu,Xhosa,Siswati and Ndebele its the same
Im glad they being guided by engineering people instead of some marketing person who knows nothing about the plant. Engineers on this clip knows their job because they can explain the process smoothly and in basic terms for anyone to understand.
Definitely
There are still some very excellent and hardworking people in eskom ❤
very detailed. This is excellent! well done to all involved
Title should be "How Electricity is NOT Generated in one of the World's Largest Coal-Fired Power Stations"
why is that?
Five of the six units are online and fully operational...
The sixth and final unit will be up and running by the end of November 2024...
🇿🇦
Brilliant feature. Brings back memories of m earlier working days 40 years ago on steam power station construction though much smaller than Kusile (only 4 x 250MW gas/oil/coal fired sub-critical). Great places steam power stations.
Excellent content, as one of the guardians I can relate and wish we could have more content like this😊
Biggest problem with Eskom is the high corruption and mafia type business happening inside of eskom.
A very informative video explaining the broad process used in coal fired boilers for electricity generation. There are some discrepancies about the process and equipment though, specifically in relation to Kusile.
Thank you for such an infomative documentary. If possible please may yiu produce another one on broadcasting centres like SABC.
Thanks for this fascinating presentation, I am not an engineer but really enjoyed this content.
The best GM ever! Hands down!!
This video was very helpful and important thank you
Excellent presentation and a get to know of the Power plant, thank you.
48:35 change in phase of water is to maintain and creating vacuum which is very important in the efficiency of the turbines
Such a knowledgeable man whose work is spoiled by politics and corruption.
I'm watching this during load-shedding.
💀💀
Apparently it's not finished yet.
@metalcake2288 i bet its been 200 years😂AnC criminals are unbelievable
i fell in love with boilers from starting my new job dealing with a 5mw firetube boiler, i have been running it for five years from water to the final product, what a beautiful feat of engineering i just wished people didn't take this stuff for granted, we would be making a lot better decisions politically.
Truly grateful for this content 🙏🏾👌🏾
This was a very interesting watch. It would have been nice if you were to ask what their efficiencies are. One of the advantages of supercritical power plants is their high efficiency, but it would be nice to know the actual efficiency numbers.
38% maximum for a subcritial power station to 42% to 47.5% thermal efficiency for a supercritical power cycle.
@@gregorymalchuk272 Thanks Gregory! So this power station is not too far behind the most efficient. It's sad that we cannot operate at much higher temperatures to increase efficiency more, but I assume that would need a different working fluid.
@@ThisRandomUsername Materials science and first cost including cost of materials is what limits initial steam conditions. The hottest superheaters are barely dabbling with austenitic stainless steels. I don't know of any station using inconel or other super alloys in superheaters. One way around this is increasing the average temperature of heat addition to the cycle with double reheat. All of the most efficient thermal power stations are double reheat, Philo Unit 5, Eddystone, Nordylland, Avogdore, Wai Gao Qiao Unit 3, etc.
Awesome interesting video! Will ovefffer a lot of persepctive to the public!
Nicely done...
Very informative, thank you very much for this.
Amazing! Thank you for this.
It should actually say how it is NOT generating power and just keeps on costing us more money
"How electricity is NOT generated at the Kusile power plant"
Thanks for an informative look at how and where our electricity comes from. Questions -When a power station first starts up, from what you've shown, it would require outside power, yes? If so, where would that come from? Once it is producing "its own power", I assume the power station consumes its own power, where required, yes?
There must be external power during the start-up. This is obtained via the transmission grid by another power station or, if none are available during a national blackout, this power will be obtained from pumped storage stations in the Drakensberg
@@heinvosloo45 Thank you Hein.
52:59 the power station can become a load on the grid and energy flows from grid to plant when plant is not generating
There's a unit out of the 6 units that is called auxiliary unit, it supplies all the electrical component with power...hope that answers you.
@@modisamashishi216 Many thanks Modisa. Always wondered and now I know.
Thank you for this informative video.
This was awesome.
thank you Dr for such an informative video.
Great educational content
Very informative thank you 👌🏼
Interesting that hydrogen gas is used for generator cooling....I believe it supresses arcing as well.
Also, what kind of huge inverter do they have to energize the stator?
If anyone wants to see what power plant control rooms look like, a YT channel called "The Proper People" features urban explorers that have visited closed power stations.... beautiful engineering and classic art deco architecture.
This plant is on another level - however one feels about coal, it's clear that they're doing everything they can to make it more efficient. Someday this plant will be energized by geothermal or fusion, who knows?
can use this as a training video well done
thank you that is the purpose of this video
I love it. Nice Content
Simcity 2000 first taught me the word "power plant" when I was 6 years old. Back then, I thought it was the facility that grew special plants that gave off electricity. That's when I had to learn the hard way that it's more complicated than that.
Insightful video
You didn't explained excitatir system and grid synchronization at all.
i love informative content like this ;).... keep it up
this is the level i want to become on my job. i want to know everything about it
Three crucial units at Kusile, the problematic, unfinished power station beset by fire and the collapse of a flue duct, which is at the heart of the corruption case against former acting Eskom CEO Matshela Koko, are all expected to be back online by the end of the year.11 Sept 2023
“Only 10 years late and 1000% over budget
Excellent.. wow...
So do they have 5 mills for each unit and a 2 fans for each unit?
So how is it possible that we use more electricity after 16:00when companies close at that time an all workers are traveling at that time
Evening peak.Every country has a different peak time. Depends on climate, heating or air conditioning demands. Or people cooking food and making hot drinks.
the demand ramps up from afternoon as the millions of people go home to cook and bathe collectively is a huge demand. This is also the time when consumers use most of their electricity, lights, TVs etc...
This is incredible
Eskom Top Performing Power Station General Manager to date is( Mr Terrence Masilela ), powers are coming back to life under his leadership best engineer by far.😅😅
@sasol we need something like this for the production of petrol from coal
So that we can produce our own 😅
Why must coal be supplied to Kusile by truck? Wasn't Kusile built at this location so that coal could be supplied by conveyor belt, as at other power stations?
its a pity that coal is brought in via trucking and the supply is not very close to the plant.
I work in a coal powered plant!
Great turbine spinners, except the POLLUTION
so when will it actually be in full commission? It's been years and still not in full production...
Film a nuclear power station next, please.
Excellently presented. But still for me the transition to renewables with storage should be much swifter. SCATEC PV with BESS at Kenhardt is a good example and there are international investors on standby for more. Go smaller, modular and less centralised. Have privately owned storage added to all new and existing Solar and Wind parks and provide regulations so that storage can be operated profitably by investors.
Excellent
How the Hell did you get access to this footage this is Excellent😎😎😎😎....
While they told us the coal is wet that’s why we have load shedding
Kusile is one of the prime examples of ANC corruption, a disgrace, a horror, nothing to be proud of.
09:30 - There is no point anywhere in the operations of electricity production where Eskom Kusile Power Station "wets" the stored coal to avoid spontaneous combustion. The coal is simply compactified immediately after it is offloaded from the trucks to eliminate development of air pockets within the heap.
nice 1 👏🏽
You have to explain excitator system and grid synchronisation. You blurred the central control room.
Eskom did not allow us to show the footage in the control room owing to the law in SA. The control room is considered a key point and not allowed to be in the media.
There actually no need to use the HP, IP and LP stages of having the generator turned.. I work for a company that’s uses methane gas fueled SGT 400 SIEMENS turbines which run at minimum 9600 output power where 2 eskom turbines can be interconnected and run at the same speed. How I hope super heated steam can be done away with and have methane gas generate our electricity NO MORE LOADSHEDDING FOR SA.
Nice thought but as long as we have the ANC interfering in any system things are not going to work like intended. Railways Harbours Post Office Denel you name it and we can see the decay. There was a similsr video about a power station in the U.K.. difference is like chalk an cheese.
Those big gas turbines drive a generator off their output shaft. The hot exhaust gases go to steam generator raise steam for use in a steam turbine to drive generator also. Its called a combined cycle gas turbine power plant. You won't get away easily from steam in thermal power generation.
The only cost-effective way to use methane for base load power generation is to use the hot turbine exhaust to boil water to drive a steam turbine which provides about a third of the power.
wonderful
Same as we have here in UK, 3000rpm to give 50Hz. Sadly we are getting rid of all our coal fired stations, not much in the way of effective replacements though 🙄
Sir any 2 reasons why coal self ignited???
Maybe consider g pin to the rotors to run it syst drive with magneto force.
nice power station, would hate for this to break down or have any maintenance issues
Love how it opens.. once it's complete... for 5 sacks.. its gone on long enough. Should have just bought solar panels and batteries..
Well done
Fascinating
What an engineering disaster. I subcontracted on this project and re-done some jobs three times over due to other contractors destroying the work. There is a good reason why it went billions over budget and everything is constantly breaking down. Corruption ans sub standard construction work.
And they never have coal or oil. How does that work.
This power station is one of South Africa's biggest disaster. I have been there when they were still building it. The contractors were not very positive for it to work properly.
Demineralized water tears the shit out of stainless steel.
So this thing of telling us that there’s wet coal is a lie to keep us in Loadshedding