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Factors contributing to power project’s delay resolved

TEETHING PROBLEMS
Eskom emphasises the importance of embedding lessons learned from Medupi’s Unit 6 to drive efficiencies in the rest of the utility’s fleet

TEETHING PROBLEMS Eskom emphasises the importance of embedding lessons learned from Medupi’s Unit 6 to drive efficiencies in the rest of the utility’s fleet

Photo by Eskom

27th June 2014

By: Mia Breytenbach

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: Features

  

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With State-owned power utility Eskom having reached key milestones in resolving issues that have caused delays in synchronising its new-build Mepudi power station project Unit 6 to the national electricity grid, Eskom is confident that the unit will be synchronised to the grid by the end of the year, says Eskom group capital acting group executive Dan Marokane.

The R105-billion Medupi project, located in Lephalale, Limpopo, is the first dry-cooled, baseload coal-fired power generating plant to be built in South Africa in 20 years. Its delivery on schedule is viewed as critical. The plant, comprising six 800 MW units, with a 4 800 MW installed capacity, will be the fourth-largest coal plant in the southern hemisphere and the biggest of its kind with dry cooling in the world.

Three key factors contributing to the delay were poor welding on the boiler, a nonconforming instrumentation and control system, and poor productivity owing to industrial action, which Eskom has set out to deal with, Marokane notes.

Eskom found that the welding procedure qualification records (WPQRs) had not verified by the relevant people at power generation company Hitachi Power Africa – which is responsible for the construction of the boilers. This resulted in Eskom having to cut out welds up to 40 mm thick and redo the WPQRs. The utility also appointed its own quality-control personnel at the Hitachi plants responsible for the construction of the boilers.

“The key milestones on the boiler included the quality welding and the successful completion of the hydro test for the boiler, which was achieved in the middle of last month, in line with our projections at the time,” Marokane says, highlighting that the boiler is currently structurally ready to operate under pressure.

“This marks the end of all the challenges we’ve experienced regarding quality control on welding,” he adds, noting that Eskom has acquired the knowledge to apply quality control welding on the remaining 11 boilers at Medupi and Kusile.

Another milestone includes the solution at the beginning of April to part of the control and instrumentation system to be supplied by French multinational power generation and power transmission provider Alstom, Marokane says. Eskom worked closely with Alstom to resolve some of the design issues in the control and instrumentation system package.

“Further, international electronic and electrical engineering group Siemens completed the critical milestone for the boiler protection system, passing its first acceptance test last month,” he says.

Meanwhile, Marokane notes that Eskom has addressed all issues pertaining to the site- specific partnership agreements between the power utility, organised labour and contractors.

The utility entered into the partnership agreement in June, last year, which made provision for a number of site-specific agreements that regulate the continuous management of the different interests at Medupi and at the Kusile power plant project, in Mpumalanga.

“The finalisation of those site-specific agreements required a number of issues to be resolved by all parties, and, as we have now addressed all the issues, Eskom signed off all agreements at the beginning of [June],” he comments, emphasising that focus currently falls on continuously driving the volume of work on site at the new builds.

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

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