South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom has launched the Hex Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project. The development represents the largest of its kind in Africa.
Located in Worcester in the Western Cape province, the project is designed to store up to 100MWh of energy.
Constructed by South Korean industrial company Hyosung, the Hex BESS project comprises large-scale batteries with a total capacity of 1,440MWh per day as well as 60MW of solar.
Eskom’s General Manager: Distribution, Operations Enablement, Velaphi Ntuli, stated that, “We are pioneering the implementation of the BESS technology, serving as a large-scale commercial project to validate the technology’s feasibility and benefits. The successful implementation will pave the way for wider adoption and possible export of the technology to other regions beyond the borders of South Africa.”
Developed under a competitive tender concluded in mid-2022, the project forms part of the first stage of Eskom’s larger BESS project – implemented under the country’s Integrated Resource Plan and funded by international financial institution the World Bank – which targets the deployment of 833 MWh of storage capacity at eight Eskom Distribution substation sites across four provinces in the country.