South Africa’s power utility Eskom announced on Monday that it has finally completed the Medupi Power Station project after 14-years of construction, which would help improve the power challenges of the country.
Eskom said Unit 1 in Lephalale which is the last of six generation units attained commercial operation status on Saturday and handed it over to the generation department. This breakthrough marks the completion of all construction activities on the 4,764MW project.
Group executive for Eskom’s group capital division, Bheki Nxumalo said the project is expected to serve generations of South Africans and power the economy for at least fifty years.
Nxumalo said the last unit was officially declared “commercial” after it went through optimization, control demonstration and, a 72-hour and 30-day reliability run.
“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,” Nxumalo said.
Construction of Medupi power project commenced in May 2007 and the power station has an operational life of fifty years. The first of Medupi’s six generation units reached commercial operation status in August 2015. Eskom puts the capital cost of the project at 122 billion rand.
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