Eskom Returning 3,700-Megawatts of Power into Operation after Fifteen Years of Power Plant Mothballing

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Aliso, Viejo, California) has won a major slice of the $2 billion power station de-mothballing program now being undertaken by South Africa's state power utility, Eskom (Johannesburg, South Africa). The scheme will bring 3,612-megawatts (MW) back into the national grid. The three power stations to be de-mothballed in the eastern central region of the country are mine mouth, coal-fired plants, with adjacent dedicated coal mines.

Fluor is to recommission the 1,200 MW Grootvlei plant, near Balfour Mpumulanga province, which is scheduled to have all six of its 200 MW units in service by 2009/2010. The $530 million contract will be supported by subcontractors and will include the control and instrumentation system, flue gas cleaning, and the boiler and turbine refurbishment. The turbine and generator set on unit 1 have been opened for detailed inspection in preparation for the return to service process. The unit's mainstream pipework and pressure parts have undergone a detailed metallurgical survey, and further tests will continue on units 1 and 2 parallel to refurbishment work on unit 1.

The Camden power station, near Ermelo in Mpumalanga province, will be the first part of the total project to be completed, with two generating, units with a combined output of 380 MW being brought into operation each year between 2005 and 2008. The first delivery of coal was made to Camden in November 2004, and the project has been granted emission control exemption during the commissioning phase. Steinmuller Engineering Services (Sandton, South Africa) is refurbishing the boiler, with ABB handling the common plant switchgear and switchgear protection plant. Howden Africa Holdings (Edenvale, South Africa) will implement the return to service and upgrade of the unit 6 precipitators, and Loesche will refurbish five mills in unit 6.

The Komati plant, between Middelburg and Bethal will have two units a year recommissioned between 2010 to 2013 and one in 2014. In the same area, the Arnot power station is having a $170 million re-fit, including a complete new control and instrumentation system, a new control room, new electrical switchgear, and a fabric filter plant to control air pollution to the level of visibly clean chimneys. The work will be done on Units 1, 2, and 3, and on six new generators. Major contractors involved at Arnot are Sumitomo (Tokyo:5802) (Tokyo, Japan), ABB South Africa (NYSE:ABB) (Zurich, Switzerland), Siemens (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany, Alstom SA (NYSE:ALSO) (Paris, France), and Eskom Enterprises supported by a number of local specialized sub-contractors.

Investment of Grootvlei, Camden, and Komati will be around $660 million each, and the refurbished power stations will have an operating life of between 15 and 25 years. The power stations were mothballed in 1989-90 due to oversupply in the system. Care was taken at the time to prioritize key components with a view to demothballing, and the opportunity is now being taken to implement state-of-the-art pollution control technologies. Bringing the units back into operation will cost about one-third of that which would have been incurred by building new power stations.

Eskom is planning for a number of greenfield power projects by 2014, when a further 10,000 MW will be needed over current installed capacity of about 37,000 MW. These will include the 1,330 MW Braamhoek pumped storage scheme on the Drakensberg escarpment, which is in the detailed design phase. See news item April 22, 2003 - Pumped Storage Power generation Kicks in Fast for Peak Loads. Eskom Transmission has 26,722 kilometers of lines across the country and carries power into neighboring states such as Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe and is involved in the development of a sub-Saharan power grid. See news item June 3, 2004 - Eskom to Issue $2.3 Billion Tenders for Three New South African Power Stations

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