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Are the dark days of loadshedding coming to an end? This comes after Eskom announced on Monday morning, 2 August 2021, that the last of six generation units at the Medupi Power Station Project in Lephalale attained commercial operation status and was handed over to the Generation division.
In a statement, Eskom states this milestone marks the completion of all building activities on the 4 764MW project, which commenced in May 2007. The planned operational life of the station is 50 years.
Eskom applauds Team Medupi, support teams, and its execution partners for working tirelessly to ensure the unit is handed over for commercial operation as planned by the end of July 2021.
Group Executive for Eskom’s Group Capital Division, Bheki Nxumalo, said, “Unit 1 commercial operation is a historic milestone as it signifies the completion of construction for Medupi Power Station. This is an investment that will serve generations of the people of South Africa and power the economy for at least the next half-century.”
According to Eskom, the Medupi Power Station uses direct dry-cooling systems due to the water scarcity in the Lephalale area. It is also the fourth-largest coal-fired plant and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world.
The power utility explains that the power plant incorporates supercritical technology, which is able to operate at higher temperatures than Eskom’s earlier generation of boilers and turbines. Notably, the technology enables the power plant to operate with greater efficiency, resulting in better use of natural resources such as water and coal and improved environmental performance.
At its peak during construction, the Medupi project directly employed more than 18 000 people on building activities, while another 2 000 supporting employees were employed on site. The project’s capital cost is R122 billion so far, and Eskom expects to spend in total under R135 billion on completion of the balance of the plant.
Since the construction of the project, Eskom has been working with the nearby communities in the Limpopo province. More than 4 600 artisans, technicians, engineers, and managers were formally trained by our contractors, exceeding Eskom’s local skills development target of 3 071. More significantly, over 60% of the beneficiaries were local residents and are from the Limpopo province.
Adding to this, the state-owned power utility explains that as part of the Medupi legacy project, Eskom invested more than R2.9 billion on socio-economic development initiatives to address some of the immediate social needs of the local communities.
Since its inception, over R145 million was spent on corporate social investment benefitting over 80 000 people, focusing on rural development, education, and health infrastructure.
Nxumalo emphasises, “What remains for the Medupi project is the last part of implementing the agreed technical solutions related to the boiler design defects on the balance of plant. Once these repairs are completed during the next 24 months, Medupi will reliably deliver power to the national grid at full capacity, helping increase energy security for the country.”
With the project set to increase energy security for South Africa, what are your thoughts?
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