Pretoria - Eskom will host the 28th African Hydro Symposium (AHS), which gets underway today at the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal.
The symposium is held annually and is a forum where hydro operating personnel, representing electricity utilities and independent power producers (IPPs) from Africa, meet to share ideas and deliberate on the operation, development, maintenance and management of hydro power plants.
Ingula is Eskom’s newest pumped storage scheme under construction and the largest in Africa housing 4 X 333MW pump turbines.
The vision of the African Hydro Symposium is to become an internationally recognised body of hydro expertise. They symposium’s objective is to facilitate technical interaction to enhance hydro plant performance for the mutual benefit of the participating utilities and IPPs.
The symposium was launched in 1988 as a meeting of Eskom Hydro Plant Operators. In 1990, this was extended to include hydro operating personnel representing electricity utilities, and IPPs from Southern Africa.
The theme for 2016 is ‘Sustainable Water – Sustainable Power’.
Approximately 100 delegates from power utilities are expected to attend the symposium from countries such as Egypt, Uganda, Angola, Namibia, Malawi, Kenya, Austria, German, Zambia, Croatia and South Africa.
The symposium will conclude on Thursday. – SAnews.gov.za
