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Johannesburg – As of Monday September 15, Eskom will be counting down from a 100 days to the synchronisation of the first of Medupi power station’s six units.
The event will mark the biggest technical milestone to date in Eskom’s R300bn capacity expansion programme aimed at ensuring future security of electricity supply.
Medupi is the first power station that Eskom has built in 20 years.
“We’re on the verge of starting to deliver on the biggest energy expansion programme South Africa has seen in decades which is a critical step closer to a future of reliable energy supply,” said Eskom interim CEO Collin Matjila during an oversight visit to the site on Saturday by Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown.
Medupi will have six units, each generating 794 Megawatts. The units are being developed in intervals and the first one (Unit 6) will be synchronised at midday on December 24 2014.
Eskom is building the Medupi coal power station (4 764 MW) near Lephalale in Limpopo, the Kusile coal power station (4 800 MW) near Emalahleni in Mpumalanga and the Ingula pumped storage scheme (1 332 MW) in the Drakensberg mountain range on the border between KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State.
Once complete, Medupi will be the fourth-largest coal power station in the southern hemisphere and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world.
Lessons learnt
“We’ve learned a lot of lessons
as we progressed, and we’ve trained people and built up skills that
will be useful not only for the remainder of the build programme, but
also for the South African industry,” Marokane added.
Eskom’s capacity expansion programme has provided a significant economic stimulus at a time when other sectors have stagnated or showed a decline, said Marokane.
The programme employs more than 40 000 people and created multi-billion rand supply opportunities for local suppliers from steel, construction, equipment and security to laundry, clothing and catering, among others.
When completed in 2019/2020, the new build programme will have added more than 17 000 MW of capacity, providing security of electricity supply to South African homes and businesses, powering economic expansion and extending electricity to millions of households who have previously relied on other fuels for domestic cooking and heating.
First power
Synchronisation, or first power, is the process whereby the generator in the unit is electrically connected to the power grid, in such a way that its power is perfectly aligned with all the other generators and to generate and deliver electricity into the grid.
It will take several months for Unit 6 to ramp up to full and stable power as part of the standard commissioning and optimisation process.
“Whilst Eskom is recognised internationally as a leader in operating coal-fired power stations, we are utilising several new technologies at Medupi, so adjusting all the systems to operate optimally and in sync will take some time,” said Dan Marokane, Eskom’s acting group executive for group capital.
Boiler repair work necessitated by defective welding, boiler chemical cleaning and turbine on barring have all been completed. The electronic control and instrumentation system has recently completed its final site integration testing.
What currently remains is to operate and commission the Draught Groups through the Control and Instrumentation system, putting fires into the boiler to generate steam for the blow through process, then passing steam to the turbine and finally synchronisation of the generator in December,’’ said Marokane.
- Fin24
