LETTER: Anti-nuclear, pro-renewable advocates mistake ‘intermittent’ supply for ‘variable’ supply
This is a response to the article, Need for base load power is a pro-Eskom fabrication, published on February 24 2017, by Dirk de Vos and Nicole Löser. As the Nuclear Industry Association of SA (NIASA), we have noted with some concern some inaccuracies in the article, which cannot be left unchallenged for those interested in pursuing a balanced discussion on the future of energy generation in the country. The electrical load of a power system consists of a portion that is fixed and a portion that varies according to the time of day and the activities in which a specific economy is engaged. This load needs to be supplied by reliable and cheap power, such as from coal, nuclear or hydro, where available. The authors choose to describe these conventional power plants as being inflexible. This is simply not accurate as all of them can be adjusted at will as the load changes. However, from an economic point of view, it is best to run these flat out, as the cost of fuel is much lower compa...
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