Cape Town - Eskom acting CEO Matshela Koko has commended the Medupi team as Unit 5 reached commercial operation, which means that it is able to supply power to the national grid during peak times.
"Eskom applauds the Medupi team, this milestone is indeed an epitome of delivery”, said Koko in a statement on Monday.
Medupi is a green field coal-fired dry-cooled base load station comprising of six units rated at 4800MW installed capacity. Once completed, the power station will be the fourth largest coal-fired plant and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world.
Unit 5 was officially declared commercial after the completion of control performance and the 72-hour reliability tests, putting all performance guarantees to effect, the power utility said.
Despite delays and cost overruns, Eskom noted that the unit's commercial operation came ahead of the scheduled time line of March 2018.
Unit 5 was first synchronised to the national grid on 8 September 2016. This was then followed by further testing and optimising, which resulted in its full power of 800 MW being attained on 17 December 2016.
Medupi Unit 6 has been contributing to the balancing of electricity supply and demand since 23 August 2015.
“The Eskom new build programme is meant for strengthening the electricity supply, Medupi with its second unit coming online, is a reflection of the endeavours towards realising this initiative".
Medupi Unit 5 project milestones:
Koko said last month that Eskom is open for business with surplus capacity available. At the time he announced a five year electricity sales agreement with Namibia’s national electricity utility NamPower.
This news followed the completion of construction of a permanent coal-handling facility at the Majuba power station in Mpumalanga.
The power utility said Silo 20 was rebuilt and Silos 10 and 30 were reinforced after the 2014 collapse of the coal storage silo. At the time, Eskom said the silo had cracked. The conveyer belt systems used to feed coal to the power station were also damaged, resulting in load shedding across South Africa.