Eskom has announced that Unit 4 at the Kusile power station has been synchronised to the national grid for the first time, this is intended to lessen power challenges on the system from next year.
Kusile is South Africa’s largest construction project and will be the world’s fourth largest coal plant once completed.
The state-owned power utility said in a statement on Thursday, the unit was connected to the grid for the first time on December 23.
“This synchronisation milestone means four generating units of the power station are now connected to the grid, and will contribute an additional 800MW to the country’s power system once the unit is fully optimised, following a series of tests and other commissioning activities,” it said.
During the testing and optimisation phase, Unit 4 will supply electricity intermittently. Eskom said it is pushing hard to finish the facility without any further delays.
Before now, the Kusile power station has remained behind schedule after billions in budgetary spendings.
“Unit 4 will supply electricity intermittently during the testing and optimisation phase over the next six months, before being handed over to the generation division to officially be part of the commercial fleet.”
Construction and commissioning activities on the remaining Kusile units, 5 and 6, “continue to progress according to plan”, Eskom said.
Situated near eMalahleni (Witbank) in Mpumalanga, Kusile station will consist of six units, and produce a maximum 4.8GW of power.
Kusile is the first power station in Africa to use wet flue gas desulphurisation technology. This removes oxides of sulphur in the emissions of power plants that burn coal or oil.