Power series books

Each volume of the Power Series has been written by teams of specialists and consultants who have been working within the utility environment for many years. This research programme ensures that the series is updated with the most current information and expertise available.

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The Eskom Power Series was conceived in response to one of the most significant concerns facing utilities around the world – the continuing loss of critical technical skills and experience. Each year a growing number of technical experts are leaving the power utility industry, taking with them their knowledge, experience and expertise acquired over many years. Demand for energy and electricity will substantially increase, forcing all power utilities to prepare for this.

The Eskom Research team has identified that the future of power engineering lies in the wisdom and experience of the engineers, technologists and technicians of today. We have therefore worked to create a sequence of volumes called the Eskom Power Series. Each volume of the Eskom Power Series has been written by teams of specialists and consultants who have been working within the power utility environment for many years. Eskom has developed a strong research and development programme focused specifically around real and potential power utility issues. This research programme ensures that the series is updated with the most current information and expertise available. The aim of the series is to collate Eskom’s experience, so as to serve as a guide and legacy. The Eskom Power Series serves as a source of reliable, reputable and highly technical information and practices. We anticipate that it will grow according to the needs of the industry, both locally and internationally.

South Africa has an electrical transmission grid of over 25 000 km of overhead power lines with voltages of 132 kV to 765 kV. The grid has been largely designed and built by the power utility, Eskom. This book embodies the planning philosophies, design principles and construction practices of Eskom. It is the culmination of decades of thought, study, research and the practical experience of many overhead power line engineers and researchers.

The book covers the main aspects of overhead power line design and construction, from electrical first principles, system planning, insulation co-ordination (including live line working), mechanical design through to environmental impact management and power line communications. The content emphasises the need for close interaction between all technical disciplines involved and the importance of optimising designs for economy and performance. Additional challenges in South Africa are the relatively high altitude of the interior plateau (1 000 m to 1 700 m above sea level), severe lightning in some areas and long transmission distances. The book explains how these factors are accommodated in modern designs. Other advanced work covered includes the use and understanding of polymeric insulators, the judicious reduction of phase-to-phase spacings and the adoption of guyed structures.

This book is a practical guide for utility staff and consulting engineers responsible for the selection, installation and maintenance of insulators for outdoor high voltage lines and substations. Students and engineers in training will also benefit by reading this book. Insulator types and their characteristics, electrical, mechanical, materials and environmental considerations, insulator selection, tests and specifications, failures mechanisms, handling and installation practices, lines and substation performance improvement, and pollution mitigation techniques are all dealt with in detail; with emphasis on practical field application. Easy to use procedures, guidelines, decision tables, flowcharts, inspection sheets and software are included.

This volume deals with basic technical topics of performance enhancement, especially the mitigation techniques required for reliable operation in high lightning environments, the implementation of safe, cost effective live line working, performance audits, line inspection and servitude management.

The volume shows how environmental factors, such as the interaction of overhead power lines with vegetation, wildlife and birds, influence the process.

The design and operation of instrument transformers in a power system ensures that the understanding and correct application requirement of the instrument transformers is attained and that the design is within the limits specified by the user, and is cost effective. For this purpose a short account of faults and protection relays, which are related to the instrument transformers, together with several protection applications are given and supported with practical examples.

Starting at a very basic level, the arguments are expanded to provide sound knowledge for the beginner and a refresher to those who are more familiar with the topics. Examples of instrument transformer design, together with the means to establish their thermal stability, are included in the text. Extensive appendices describe particular arguments or formulae used in the text to keep the text fluid.

This book is essential for the engineer responsible for placing and adjudicating orders, and running power system protection and maintenance. For this purpose, the information required by manufacturers is included. The detailed mathematical modelling of both instrument transformers and protective systems is comprehensively illustrated with pertinent numerical examples to ensure that the application of the modelling is clearly understandable.

This volume is a record of the understanding, of power transformers as they are used in the power supply industry. In its compilation every effort has been made to blend knowledge and experience, in a readable and easily understandable manner. It is intended to be of use to everyone with responsibilities in the transmission and distribution of electric power. The book opens with a chapter on the impact that market forces are having on the operation and maintenance of transformers. It goes on to address fundamental transformer principles, specification, design and construction. The important aspects of understanding how a transformer and its environment interact and the measures that must be taken to preserve both, are explained. Insulation co-ordination and protection are thoroughly discussed. Every aspect of transformer life, starting with factory testing, through commissioning and condition monitoring to the extension of its life are comprehensively addressed. The final chapter has a specific focus on pole-mounted distribution transformers.

While this book was written on the basis of experience in Eskom, every effort has been made to extract general principles, relevant to any utility. Specific Eskom practices have been used as examples to illustrate the principles.

Each chapter is largely stand alone and can be used without having read the rest of the book. Where necessary, references have been made to relevant material in other chapters. This book is an invaluable resource for technical specialists, system operators, maintenance staff and managers.

Description	Full colour hardcover book
ISBN No.	978-0-620-38294-6
Pages	337
Weight	1.24 kg
Dimension	260 mm x 210 mm x 28 mm

Cost in South African Rands:
R 1 130 (Including VAT)

The South African high voltage transmission network includes lines that operate at voltages up to 800 kVac and ±533 kVdc. Increasing demand for electric power in South Africa as well as other countries around the world has led to the expansion of power networks and the use of transmission voltages up to 1200 kVac and ±800 kVdc. Corona and related effects play an important role in the electrical design and performance of existing and planned ac and dc transmission lines.

This is a comprehensive reference book on the corona design and performance considerations of high voltage ac, dc and hybrid ac/dc transmission lines. While corona losses may have an impact on the economic choice of conductors, radio interference and audible noise are the principal environmental consequences of corona on ac and dc line conductors. In some cases the radio interference, because of its influence on power line carrier performance, can be an additional factor. The corona-generated space charge environment is also an important design consideration in the case of dc and hybrid ac/dc transmission lines.

Treatment of the physical, analytical and experimental aspects of corona performance of ac and dc transmission lines is presented in this book. Example calculations are included throughout in order to provide a better understanding of the analytical techniques presented and of the orders of magnitudes involved. Explanatory photographs, diagrams, tables and graphs complement the text. Development of criteria and methodologies for the corona design of ac and dc transmission lines and their application to typical cases are also described.

This book is a valuable resource for transmission line design engineers and for those involved in carrying out corona research studies as well as for developing university undergraduate and graduate courses.

This book explains the significance of Power Quality (PQ) or Quality of Supply in the context of today’s electricity supply systems. It begins by exploring the history and technical scope of PQ, how it forms a subset of the broader topic of Electromagnetic Compatibility, and how and why it has developed into a distinct technical discipline during the past 20 to 25 years. The theoretical aspects of a given technical component of PQ are introduced in the main body of the book in dedicated chapters; in each case, the experience gained (by Eskom) is then used to illustrate how the principles of PQ are being effectively applied in modern electric networks.

The book encapsulates the knowledge and unique insights gained by Eskom over the years during the implementation of a comprehensive PQ measurement survey. The objectives of the survey were firstly, to determine the levels of PQ being attained, and secondly, to establish how the results could be used to set realistic design and performance criteria for each component of PQ. Key drivers in the evolvement of PQ into a discipline include the increased sensitivity of customer equipment to deleterious electrical effects, the need for operational efficiency, the move to privatise utilities, and increasingly tight regulatory requirements in many countries.

The formal integration of PQ by means of the standardisation of limits for voltage fluctuations (which comprise primarily voltage surges, voltage regulation, dips, notches, flicker, harmonics, unbalance) and frequency control as the key components of PQ, has greatly helped to consolidate PQ as a stand-alone discipline in today’s power utility. By elaborating on the foregoing aspects, this book will thus be useful to a diverse spectrum of persons, including specialist practitioners, grid planners, consultants, academics, power utility managers and regulatory authorities.

Since 2000, the installed capacity of HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) systems has grown by some 60 GW world-wide, and represents about 130% of the total capacity up to that time. The reasons for this rapid growth are essentially the controllability of HVDC, its suitability for long distance transmission and a matching for electricity demand for electricity in some countries. There is thus today considerable interest in HVDC and its technical attributes. This book has accordingly been written to support this need, and has been done by collating a comprehensive spectrum of information compiled by eminent experts in HVDC.

This is the first of two volumes: it deals with the theory and principles of HVDC transmission, how it compares technically with HVAC (high voltage alternating current) transmission, the state of its technology, the economics of HVDC and HVAC, and how its environmental impact should be managed so that the requirements of funding bodies, such as the World Bank, are met. In this volume, the basic principles of HVDC are explained, with the emphasis on the predominant technology, namely, line commutated converters. Also covered are: planning, environmental impact, costs, performance targets, and engineering principles and practice, on one side, and on the other, technically complex issues associated with control philosophies, harmonic limitation and the principles of the new voltage source converter technology.

It is the blending of theory and engineering practice which make this volume especially useful to the planning engineer, research engineer, practising engineer and academic, whilst the information in Chapters 1 (Scope), 2 (Technology overview) and 7 (Environmental impact) will be helpful to corporate policy analysts and decision-makers, and others who require a high-level, strategic introduction to the subject.

An understanding of thermodynamics is essential for power plant design and this volume of the Eskom Power Series outlines the key thermodynamic principles. The text includes inter alia, basic concepts and definitions, the first and second laws of thermodynamics, steam and gas plant, compressor and refrigeration plant, entropy, and non-reactive and reactive systems.

These topics contain the key thermodynamic principles required by a typical power plant engineer to design a new asset, evaluate a new technology concept (i.e. to validate power output or thermal efficiency), or to understand a thermodynamics-related issue on existing plant. In principle, the book covers the basic theory with sample calculations that provide a foolproof methodology to approaching analyses at a system level. The basic laws of thermodynamics leading up to applications in the gas and steam plant will be of relevance to both practising engineers and technologists.

Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler, is the key theme of the book. To this end, the author presents a complex subject in simple terms without referencing additional chapters linked to research or emerging fields. The key intention of the book is to present a foundation to prepare readers for higher level thermodynamics texts.

It is the author’s wish that this book becomes the reader’s desktop reference.

Thermal science is a ternary subject that comprises thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Noting that thermodynamics is energy transformation, fluid mechanics is energy transportation, and heat transfer is movement of energy due to temperature differences, it is quite easy to see that in almost all engineering applications these three sciences occur simultaneously. The biggest shortcoming faced by engineers is to treat each subject separately without seeing how they interact.

The key objective of this book is firstly to present the three key disciplines, viz. thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and heat transfer, that influence the technical part of the generating and new build businesses. More importantly, the application of the essential theory to operating plant and new designs is discussed using language familiar to Eskom engineers. To an extent, examples are provided where engineering judgement is needed, and guidelines to resolve such incidents are provided.

Applications of thermal sciences in practice, where energy transformation, transportation and heat transfer occur is presented under the topic of field applications. These examples include the development of a theory that could be used to cast better quality turbine blades; wind turbine technology; the development of the Betz limit (likened to the Carnot efficiency) together with the analysis of wind data, which includes topics such as turbulence intensity and wind velocity profiles; and finally the use of atmospheric radiation to generate power in central receiver systems. In the final example, the basic equations are developed using vector theory and encoded in an Excel-based code called SOLAR (developed by the author). SOLAR is used to determine the heliostat field cosine efficiency as a function of date and time of day. A design example on the determination of the receiver wall thickness and the maximum receiver temperature is also presented to the reader.

It is the author’s wish that, besides having the book become a desktop reference, the reader internalises the contents of the book before attempting designs or design reviews. The book will serve as a refresher for the engineer that has been out of touch with the subject matter for a while, and as a learning tool to the trainee engineer.

This third book in the Thermodynamics series focuses largely on applications in the field. Typically, when making a decision, sparse information is available to the engineer. In this instance, some engineering judgement is required and, with the aid of proper tools, a decision can be made speedily. To assist in the decision making the author has compiled six apps that the author felt would be applicable to an engineer practising in the power generation environment. These apps include ‘PipeFlow’, ‘Engine’, ‘SteamPlant’, ‘WindAnalyse’, ‘SolarAngles’ and ‘SolarC This third book in the Thermodynamics series focuses largely on applications in the field. Typically, when making a decision, sparse information is available to the engineer. In this instance, some engineering judgement is required and, with the aid of proper tools, a decision can be made speedily. To assist in the decision making the author has compiled six apps that the author felt would be applicable to an engineer practising in the power generation environment. These apps include ‘PipeFlow’, ‘Engine’, ‘SteamPlant’, ‘WindAnalyse’, ‘SolarAngles’ and ‘SolarCSPDesign’.

In each chapter the fundamental theory is revised/discussed before the app is introduced. The app is intended to be simple and user friendly and is ideal for use when desktop work is undertaken. A brief explanation of each app is given below.

Pipe

Flow: Used for the analysis of simple and complex flow including work transfer and major and minor losses. The tool is ideal for use by engineers at the basic design level where losses are required to determine electrical loads for pumping, etc. The app may also be used to consider a site for, say, pumped storage. Examples are provided to explain use in this environment.

Engine: This app is used for all gas turbine and gas/diesel engine plant at the concept/basic design level where perhaps the power output is required for a certain fuel source or the fuel energy is required for a desired power output. In addition, the app calculates the fuel cost for gas and liquid fuel based on a user input fuel cost in ZAR/GJ and ZAR/L respectively. Combined cycle analysis is included in the app.

SteamPlant: In this app, the steam plant power output is calculated based on a coal specification that includes an analysis of the coal and volatiles as well as the ash. The calorific value of the coal sample is calculated and the effect of using wet coal is clearly demonstrated as far as the plant output is concerned.

WindAnalyse: This app takes raw data as received from site and does a comprehensive and complete analysis of the data in a single step and is in full compliance with IEC 61400-1. The tool is indispensable to any user who is at the phase of performing wind resource analysis and does not have bespoke software, such as Windfarmer.

SolarAngles: The highly complicated algorithm devised by National Renewable Energy Laboratory is encoded into Visual Basic for use in the EXCEL environment. This app produces an accurate output for the solar azimuth and zenith angles based on a time, date, day, month and year input for a specific location, elevation, site temperature and pressure. The app is similar in terms of interface to the app ‘Solar1’ written by the author.

SolarCSPDesign: For a given Direct Normal Irradiation (DNI) value and desired plant output, this app generates the heliostat number as well as the total tower base thermal power required for a solar multiple. It is a simple yet powerful app that is indispensable at the concept/basic design phase of the project. One may use this app to perform, say, a parametric analysis before putting out an enquiry for the most efficient salt-water/steam heat exchanger, by increasing the efficiency of the heat exchanger and observing the effect on the number of heliostats.

The Eskom Water, Energy and Development book is a coffee table book which aims to highlight the importance of water in the Southern African region. Through a series of inspirational pictures and quotes, the book aims to educate the reader to the possible uses of water in the power industry and environment. It highlights mankind’s need for water, both for recreation purposes and to sustain life. Additionally, the book describes Eskom’s environmental and water strategy.

The full colour pictures cover a range of topics from the Drakensburg Pump Storage Scheme to spectacular shots of sunset over Lake Malawi and the Okavango Delta. Mankind’s interaction with water is portrayed in several pictures.

The quotations found throughout the book offer insight to the challenges that will be faced by Southern Africa if water is not used in a sustainable manner.

The Mentorship and Coaching book has been written as a complete and implementable guide for any individual who would like to embark on the path of developing another person in the form of mentoring and coaching.

Each chapter takes the reader from the principles of mentorship to implementing it within the organisation, identifying the most applicable methodologies to utilise in order to teach and support the mentor though the mentoring process. The book equips and guides a mentor in understanding the different personalities that they will come across in an organisation, and in understanding their protégé in order to better lead and mentor them. It provides light on the relationship between a mentor, a protégé and coach in detail, to ensure the best outcome for all parties involved.

Amongst the greatest challenges in South Africa and Africa as a region is the need to identify, grow, lead and harness local talent and skills. This applies to the private sector, government, SOCs and all other forms of institution and is necessary for African organisations to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy and to enable Africans to benefit from the enormous opportunities for growth on the continent.

This book provides guidance to leaders in all spheres of economic activity to develop human capital strategies and apply practices that will assist them to compete more effectively in a modern, fast changing world.

The chapters each provide a perspective into key issues associated with organisational and individual effectiveness. Most chapters offer a theoretical and conceptual understanding of the topic concerned as well as practical ways in which leaders can improve their people practices.

The book is certainly not meant to be read only by Human Resources professionals. Whilst they will undoubtedly gain useful insights into latest thinking in their profession, it is particularly aimed at leaders at all levels in all types of organisation. While HR will often provide support and systems, experience has shown unequivocally that the most successful organisations place a huge emphasis on leadership and that leadership is one of the most important differentiators of organisational success.

It is this belief that effective leadership of talented and skilled people is essential to effective organisational performance that resulted in the title of the book – Winning with People … Insights for Leaders and Organisations.

All the contributors are academic thought leaders in their fields as well as extensive experience in the execution of sound leadership and talent practices.

Over the past 20 years it has become clear that certain macro trends and forces are causing procurement and supply management groups to undergo dramatic changes. As fims rely on fewer suppliers to provide increasing amounts of value across all sorts of business areas, including through product and facility design support, and as the compensation that suppliers receive consumes an increasing amount of corporate revenue, procurement and supply chain management begin to look important.

This book provides a timely resource for procurement professionals, or for those who are at the point of entering this fild. It will help greatly to enhance their ability to contribute to the development of a procurement and supply organisation that provides reliable sources of supply and, eventually, competitive corporate advantage.

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The book(s) will only be delivered once the book(s) and delivery charges (where applicable) have been paid in full.
Eskom reserves the right to cancel an order for any reason(s) by notifying the customer.
A customer may only cancel an order within 7 business days of placing it. Eskom will view the failure to cancel the order in the allotted time as an indication for the sale to continue and will seek the complete sale amount from the customer.
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E-mail at: Sanjeev.Bisnath@eskom.co.za
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Power series books

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There are several other books and related products that we are working on and some of them are as follows:

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