Basic HTML Version
174
UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Keeping the Lights On
Rolling blackouts will continue to plague South Africa unless the country’s brightest sparks establish research
solutions to stabilise and control the nation’s power systems.
UCT’s Department of Electrical Engineering is
investigating ways to transmit more power in a
reliable and efficient way with the use of High
Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines,
parallel to High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC)
transmission lines. Using HVDC offers economic and
technological advantages compared to using HVAC
alone. The hybrid system brings new challenges
of its own and focus has been on the interactions
between HVAC and HVDC, and the effect of line
length on the stability of the system.
A research team led by UCT’s Professor Komla
Folly are now involved with the second phase of
the project. Their research investigates a broader
application of this concept to a new Smart Grid and
deals with the potential outcomes of introducing
more renewable energy sources and technologies
to the grid, which would result in a more complex
power system that would become increasingly
difficult to control. Maintaining the security and
stability of the system is critical to achieving a
reliable power supply, along with sustainable
Research Project
development of the electric power industry and the
nation's economic growth.
In addition, researchers are mindful that HVDC
transmission systems and renewable energy
technologies that are available in Africa, but
underutilised at present, have the potential to be
developed for commercialisation and to create the
type of “green jobs” crucial for moving towards a
green economy.
Project collaboration included researchers at UCT,
the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Peninsula
University of Technology, as well as at universities
elsewhere in Africa, and in Asia, the USA and
Canada. Eskom and Zeta Power Consulting provided
industry collaboration. The project was funded by the
Department of Trade and Industry’s Technology and
Human Resources for Industry Programme. Over the
course of the project, 15 MSc and two PhD students
have graduated, of whom 98% are black and three are
female. Several conference papers and journal articles
have been published between 2010 and 2012.