Eskom establishes large-scale battery test and demonstration facility

State-owned power utility Eskom’s research, testing and development (RTD) department has unveiled a battery testing and demonstration facility – the only one of its kind in South Africa.   The objective of the facility, based at Eskom’s Research and Innovation Centre in Rosherville, Johannesburg, is to compare different technologies and supplier products under identical South African conditions and to identify which of these products is suitable for Eskom’s future energy storage needs. Eskom considers storage solutions to be ‘grid strengthening’ and highlights them as key for the integration of renewable energy sources into the grid, as storage helps with the integration of renewable energy supplied by independent power producers being fed into the grid.   “We have identified the need for up to 2 000 MW of additional, daily balanced energy storage within the existing grid,” RTD GM Barry MacColl said in a statement on Thursday.