South Africa's State-owned electricity utility Eskom has awarded a new R1,1-billion (€100-million) contract to global power and transport equipment manufacturer Alstom for an instrumentation and control system for its R100-billion, 4 800-MW Medupi coal-fired power station being built in Limpopo province.

The French multinational, which is the world's third-largest builder of power plants, has also extended an option (worth a further €100-million) to install an identical system at Eskom's Kusile facility, which is currently being built in Mpumalanga province.

However, Eskom confirmed last week that it had pulled back on the award of new contracts at Kusile, pending the finalisation of a tariff application. It submitted an initial request on September 30, 2009, for increases of 45% a year for three years. However, it would submit a revised (and probably lower application) on Monday, November 30, 2009, which could have implications for Kusile.

Chief officer Brian Dames told Engineering News Online last week that the award of some "smaller contracts" for the R111-billion Kusile project had been delayed, which would affect the project's overall delivery schedule.

Eskom did not want to "over commit" itself in the context of lower demand levels, which might also be relatively modest post the recession, owing to the fact that Rio Tinto Alcan had decided to terminate plans for a proposed $2,7-billion aluminium smelter project, in the Eastern Cape.

Some industry observers have suggested that the Kusile project could be delayed by between 18 months and 36 months.

Dames told Engineering News Online that Eskom would engage with its suppliers to "optimise the construction schedule" between Medupi and Kusile in light of changed circumstances and that Eskom would attempt to seek a solution that was beneficial to all participants so as to avoid penalties.

Medupi and Kusile were the largest dry-cooled, coal-fired power plants under construction globally and Alstom had previously secured the contract for 12 turbines and generators, with a capacity of 790 MW each, across the two project sites.

It had also been the preferred bidder for the boilers contracts. But these were eventually placed with Hitachi after Eskom and Alstom failed to reach financial agreement, following scope changes.

Alstom said on Monday that, under the terms of the new Medupi contract, it would engineer, supply and install its latest distributed control system, the ALSPA Series 6, as well as related instrumentation.

The company said that the control system would ensure safe, efficient monitoring and control of the plant's critical equipment, and support Medupi's integration into Eskom's existing fleet of 23 power stations, comprising 124 units with a nominal generation capacity of some 40 000 MW.

"The award of this contract confirms Eskom's confidence in Alstom and recognises the quality and performance of Alstom's automation offering," Alstom Power president Philippe Joubert said, adding that the offering was able to address the new "smart grid" challenges and help energy producers optimise their assets.