Eskom's 4,800-Megawatt Project Begins Power Production after Major Schedule Creep

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The long-awaited, 4,800-megawatt Medupi power station began producing electricity last week in South Africa, about seven and a half years after construction began. The coal-fired facility, owned by Eskom (Johannesburg, South Africa), is expected to ramp up to full power in three months.

Construction on the project began in August 2007. At that time, the last of six planned units was scheduled to go on-grid in 2015. The project had a planned investment of SA rand (SAR) 80 billion (about $7 billion at current exchange rates).

The estimated total investment is now SAR 120 billion (about $10.5 billion), and the date for full power by all six units is now set for sometime in 2019. The second unit is scheduled for synchronization with the grid in 2016-17.

State-owned Eskom also hopes to commission the first unit for Medupi's "twin" 4,800-MW project, Kusile, sometime in 2016.

There was some self-congratulation by government and Eskom officials, including new Chief Executive Officer Tshediso Matona, who said, "The electricity flowing into the grid marks a new beginning." With load shedding and power supply quotas affecting the country's domestic and industrial users, the most generous reaction to the official excitement is, "About time too."

For related information, see December 2, 2014, article - South Africa's Eskom Battles Murphy's Law at Mega Projects.

The grid is now receiving an additional 1,500 MW from a renewable projects pipeline, but still needs at least one of the major projects to be brought online to add to the installed capacity of 42,000 MW, which would allow a reasonable reserve margin on the system. Many of the units in the ageing, mainly coal-fired national fleet need to be taken off-grid for unscheduled maintenance. This could reduce available power capacity by as much 25% at various times.

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