New contractor upbeat on Kusile's tough deadlines

Cape Town – Kusile’s recently appointed contractor said on Wednesday that it was confident it would meet the tough deadlines set by Eskom and that labour issues will be averted going forward.

The Mpumalanga-based power station has experienced massive delays and its completion date was pushed from 2017 to 2021. It will add 4 790 MW to the national grid, which is about 12% of South Africa’s future generating capacity.

ABB SA took over the C&I (Control and Instrumentation) contract on 17 April from Alstom Save after Alstom had consensually agreed to terminate the contract with Eskom.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Africa, ABB South Africa CEO Leon Viljoen told Fin24 that the new deadlines were “definitely achievable”.

“It is difficult deadlines, but achievable deadlines that we’ve committed to on the project and that have been accepted by Eskom,” he said.

Labour issues

Viljoen said there was “quite a different workforce on Kusile than there is on Medupi”.

“We had very similar issues to Medupi when we built the two large solar plants in Polokwane and we handled it,” he said.

“Yes, it’s a smaller scale than a power station, but I think a lot of lessons learnt at Medupi has been implemented by Eskom and all the contractors.

“Labour relations is probably much better at Kusile than it is today at Medupi,” he said.

AUDIO: Full interview with ABB South Africa CEO Leon Viljoen

Local expertise

ABB is supplying a complete control and instrumentation solution for the entire plant, including boiler protection and plant simulator, engineering, installation, commissioning, optimisation and training.

ABB provides automation and software for advanced clean coal power plants, including super-critical installations like Kusile.

Viljoen said at Kusile ABB SA would account for 40% of the engineers, who are all South African.

“Together with Eskom, that’s sustainability because after the contract, if there are any issues, we’ve got the local expertise to handle the issues that come up,” he said.

Working with Eskom

Commenting on the leadership dramas at Eskom, where its chairperson, CEO and senior executive resigned in a relatively quick succession, Viljoen said he was optimistic about the road ahead.

“There’s been a lot of turmoil at Eskom, but I think one thing for me that is a good thing is that [Eskom’s acting CEO] Brian Molefe has proven himself at Transnet and definitely gives me confidence that he’s the person that can Eskom in the right direction going forward,” he said.

But he added that “it’s really important that permanent appointments are made to give stability to the people working at Eskom”.