Kusile unit joins power grid
Eskom able to increase exports to neighbours
THE first unit of the Kusile power station in Mpumalanga was connected to the national grid for the first time on Monday night‚ a move that will add an extra 800MW to further stabilise the power system to support South Africa’s economic growth and the rollout of the electrification programme‚ Eskom said.
“The connection of Unit 1 of Kusile comes at a time when Eskom has been incrementally building excess capacity to ensure security of power supply.
“In addition to Unit 6 of the Medupi power station, which has been operating for over a year now‚ Eskom’s new-build programme has also added 1 332MW from all four units of the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme‚ as well as the synchronisation of Medupi Unit 5‚” Eskom said yesterday.
It said excess capacity had enabled the power provider to increase its electrification target to over 200 000 households by the end of March 2017‚ against the target of 169 722 that had been set for it by the Department of Energy.
“At the same time‚ Eskom has also increased its electricity exports to neighbouring states‚ many of whom have had their hydro schemes adversely affected by the drought.
“Eskom’s electricity sales to Botswana‚ Namibia‚ Zambia and Zimbabwe rose 31.6% in the six months to September 30 2016‚” the electricity parastatal stated.
Eskom’s interim group chief executive‚ Matshela Koko‚ said: “Eskom has focused on lessons learnt from its past history of new-build projects and this has led to this early synchronisation.
“Our build programme is now delivering ahead of our re-baseline schedule‚ our operations have stabilised and, as a result‚ we are in a position of [generating] surplus capacity.”
Business could be assured of a constant power supply, Koko said. “I therefore invite business to invest in the economy because the availability of electricity is no longer a constraint to the growth of the economy.”
The Kusile Power Station is a greenfields coal-fired power plant located near the existing Kendal Power Station in the Nkangala district of Mpumalanga.
It will comprise six units‚ each rated at an 800MW-installed capacity for a total capacity of 4 800MW.
Construction activities commenced in 2008‚ and the power station is planned to be fully installed by 2022.
Kusile is the first power plant in Africa to implement clean fuel technology such as flue-gas desulphurisation – a state-of-theart technology used to remove oxides of sulphur‚ such as sulphur dioxide‚ from exhaust flue gases in power plants that burn coal or oil.
This technology is fitted as an atmospheric emission abatement technology‚ in line with current international practice‚ to ensure compliance with air-quality standards‚ especially since the power station is located in a priority air-shed area.
The station has a total planned operational life of 50 years. — TMG Digital