The first of the 4,764-MW Medupi coal-fired powerplant’s six units commenced commercial operations in South Africa in September, almost six months after it was synchronized to the national grid and three years after it initially was set to be operational.
The entire $7.6-billion project, developed by South Africa’s state power company Eskom, has an operational life of 50 years and is slated for completion in 2019. However, intermittent labor unrest and technical challenges have delayed completion of various work on unit No. 6, the deadline of which could be revised to accommodate the disruptions.
The unit at the greenfield dry-cooled coal plant, 15 kilometers west of Lephalale in the Limpopo, was commissioned officially in late August to feed the national grid 794 MW; it is a major boost to Eskom, which has been battling frequent load shedding as energy shortages bite and are said to have reduced the country’s economic growth by 2% last year. The unit increases Eskom’s total installed capacity to 45,000 MW.
“The commercial operation of unit No. 6 is a critical milestone in our effort to build new generating capacity to meet South Africa’s rising electricity demand,” said Eskom’s CEO Brian Molefe in late August.
Completion of unit No. 6 was preceded by delays that included pushing to March 2014 from December 2013 its synchronization to the national grid. That delay was linked to labor disputes between workers and Eskom’s contracted companies and what the power generator said was “extensive work on realignment as a result of fraudulent activities by contractors, insufficient construction labor on-site and poor productivity.” Read more…
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