Driekloof Dam is a small section of the

Sterkfontein Dam The Sterkfontein Dam, located just outside the town of Harrismith, in the Free State, province of South Africa, is part of the Tugela-Vaal Water Project and the Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme, and located on the Nuwejaarspruit, a tributary of ...

, Free State,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. A section of the Sterkfontein Dam reservoir is isolated after the construction of Driekloof Dam, this small reservoir has a capacity of ., together with the

Kilburn Dam The Kilburn Dam, an earth-fill type dam and part of the Tugela-Vaal Water Project and Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme, is located lower than the Sterkfontein Dam, on the Mnjaneni River, near Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, province of South Afri ...

almost lower, Driekloof forms part of

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. It was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) and was also known by its Afrikaans name Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie (EVKOM). Eskom repre ...

Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme The Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme is an energy storage facility built in the South African provinces of Free State and KwaZulu-Natal starting in 1974 and completed by 1981. Four dams are involved in the scheme; the Driekloof Dam (''joined ...

and Tugela-Vaal Water Project, and provides for up to of electricity storage in the form of of water. The water is pumped to Driekloof during times of low national power consumption (generally over weekends) and released back into Kilburn through four turbine generators in times of high electricity demand. The scheme is operated in such a way that there is a net pumping of up to /annum depending upon the water availability in the Tugela catchment (

Woodstock Dam Woodstock Dam is located on the upper reaches of the Thukela River, Tugela, KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa and is the main source of water for the Thukela-Vaal Transfer Scheme. The dam was commissioned in 1982, has a storage capacity of , a ...

) as well as the need for augmentation in the

Vaal Dam The Vaal Dam in South Africa was constructed in 1938 and lies 77 km south of OR Tambo International Airport. The lake behind the dam wall has a surface area of about and is 47 meters deep. The Vaal Dam lies on the Vaal River, which is one ...

catchment. The Driekloof Dam was commissioned in 1979, has a capacity of , and a surface area of , the Dam wall is high.

References

{{stack, {{Portal, South Africa, Water, Renewable energy Dams completed in 1979 Energy infrastructure completed in 1979 Dams in South Africa Hydroelectric power stations in South Africa