Summary

The visit to the Palmiet power station was an educational one. There we learnt the factors
taken into account for the designing and building of a power station. The most important
factors are as follows:

It is essential to know the function of the power station. The Palmiet power station was to
be used as an immediate backup during peak times as it can generate a nominal capacity of
400MW in approximately 4 minutes whereas a coal powered station takes a minimum of 8
hours. The role of our power station was supply electricity to a neighbourhood of 40
consumers in Sea Point. This meant that although this residential area is expected to grow, it
would probably suffice to build a distribution power station.
Another factor is the area that you will be building your power station in. For the Palmiet
power station this was a necessary step as it was planned to be built in a fynbos area with
many species of indigenous plants. This would be difficult considering the rules and
regulation when it comes to environmental conservation. It was obvious that only a power
station using renewable energy resources would be used because one using non-renewable
resources such as coal would be bad for the areas nearby and the biosphere around it. The
area that we were going to supply energy to is an urban and condensed area. This meant
that a generating/transmission substation would not be suitable. It also meant that a neat
appearance would be needed where right of way would not be a limiting factor. This led us
to the conclusion that it would be an indoor substation with copper underground
distribution lines. Copper was somewhat of an obvious choice as underground cables should
be of high quality for both conducting and for durability.

Only after that did we look at the demand of our load. We used a standard ADMD (after
diversity maximum demand) value of 5.3KVA/per household x 40 households. From the
investigation of the area we had made earlier we found that an extra 12% in KVA needs to be
added because Sea Point is a coastal region and coastal areas are very cold in winter. This led
us to our transformer value also making use of standard values. The transformer used in our
indoor substation was then chosen to be 66/11KV 315KVA. All subsequent values for
currents and voltages were chosen using standard values of cable, switchgear, transformers
and protection equipment.

I am happy with the approach we used as a group. For us it was a logical and systematic way
of designing our power station. This left little room for missing important parts in our design.
We also included mini substations and pillar substations in our design. If we hadn’t used this
approach I believe we would have missed installing the mini sub and pillar in our design.

As a group we worked quite well together. It was only the initial stages that gave us some
trouble as it was difficult finding a starting point, but once we started it was easy moving
forward. We divided the work amongst the group members and everyone di their bit. The
advantages of working in a group were that we met every other day to update each other on
211148709 B. Cishe
our work so far and advised each other on what more was needed to be done and if we
were still going the right path. Working in a group taught me for starters how to work with
different people and also to listen to their views.

I conclude by saying that this assignment was very challenging but working in a group surely
made it easy. Sometimes someone would point out something to you that you didn’t notice
and this made it much more do-able.

211148709 B. Cishe