Name and Location
Medupi power station project, Limpopo, South Africa.

Client
Eskom.

Project Description
Medupi will be located on an 883 ha site in Lephalale, Limpopo.

It will be a dry-cooled coal-fired, baseload power-generating plant, comprising six 794 MW units, with a 4 764 MW installed capacity – the biggest of its kind with dry cooling in the world.

The planned operational life of the station is 50 years.

The power station will use high-tech supercritical boilers, which will operate at higher temperatures and pressures than the older boilers, thereby providing greater efficiency.

It is the first baseload coal-fired station to be built in South Africa in more than 20 years and its delivery on schedule is viewed as critical.

The project will form part of the utility's integrated strategic electricity plan.

Value
The cost of the project has increased from R91.2-billion to R105-billion.

Duration
The first unit, Unit 6, will be synchronised to the grid in 2014, instead of December 2013, as was previously announced.

Latest Developments

Eskom is currently in a position to make performance bond demands against Hitachi Power Africa (HPA) for failing to deliver on its construction contracts at the Medupi power plant, MPs heard on September 11.

The extended trigger date for calling in the bonds was August 9, Eskom commercial director Dan Marokane told Parliament's portfolio committee on energy.

It emerged in June that Hitachi had taken legal action to prevent Eskom calling in bonds, as the utility had done with Alstom, who is supplying the boiler protection system at Medupi and has also failed to meet its obligations.
Hitachi approached the court in February to prevent Eskom calling in performance bonds and secured an extension of the trigger date till early August.

If the power utility calls in all bonds, it will recover R1.5-billion from Hitachi, the biggest contractor at the plant and whose poor performance has contributed to increasing the estimated cost of completing the project to R105-billion.

Eskom has demanded Hitachi restore its performance bonds to 100% to mitigate losses from any further failure by the company to meet standards on a R20-billion contract to construct the boilers at Medupi.

Eskom has also asked Hitachi Japan for performance guarantees, and extended its supervision of contractors' work at Medupi.

Eskom was poised to call in the bonds to penalise Hitachi for faulty welding and for failure by a subcontractor hired by the company to heat-treat welds to ensure they can withstand operational stress.

After Eskom was assured that testing had been done; the utility called in the police to probe contract breaches, when this was not the case.

The company has committed itself to repairing all faulty work, but Marokane has indicated that Hitachi has not lived up to demands to repair defective welds on a reheater on boiler number six at the plant.

Inspections carried out on August 17 and 21 showed that "the repair methodology has not turned the boiler to acceptable tolerances", according to his presentation to the committee.

This could delay the crucial phase of hydro testing by some four months.

Eskom had planned to have the first unit at Medupi on line by the end of this year, but Marokane  has confirmed that the delays mean this will not happen until the second half of 2014.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Parsons Brinckerhoff (contracts manager); Exxaro Resources (coal agreement); Roshcon (enabling civils); BKS Group (audit and design of concrete steel structures); HPA and Hitachi Power Europe, or HPE (engineering, supply, manufacturing, construction and commissioning of utility steam generators, as well as related components, such as regenerative steam air heaters, coal mills and feeders, sootblowers, fans, de-ashers and high- and low-pressure pipework); Murray & Roberts, or M&R (structural steel fabrication and erection, mechanical installation works, boiler construction and civil works contract); Genrec Engineering (awarded several projects by M&R, which is contracted to HPA –connection design, as well as detail, fabricate and supply the structural steel for the boiler island, auxiliary bay structures, ash transverse conveyors, coal incline conveyors and the primary and secondary coal conveyors); DSE Structural Engineers & Contractors, subcontracted by Genrec Engineering (air preheater structure); Clyde Bergemann Power Group, subcontracted by HPA (supplier of sootblowers for boilers); Clyde Bergemann Africa (fly-ash handling and conditioning systems); Energy Fabrication (supply of 30 000 t of fabrication platework for the boiler ducting and coal bunkers); Alstom (turbine-generator protection equipment); SPX Corporation (pulse-jet fabric filters and air preheaters, as well as the manufacture of pressure parts); GEA (design, manufacture, supply and erection of the air-cooled condensers); Hansen Transmissions South Africa (condenser gearboxes); Afrimat, in partnership with local suppliers Chobe Crushers (supply of aggregate); BroKrew Industrial (fabrication, corrosion protection and delivery of ducting for six air-cooled condenser sections); Royal HaskoningDHV (engineering services); Kwikspace (modular accommodation units); Sarens (mobile crane hire); Voith Turbo (Vorecon drives); Concrete Finishing Equipment (dust filters and silo and environmental safety); Areva's transmission and distribution, or T&D, division (switchgear cubicles); Mikropul (axial-flow fans and auxiliary equipment for the turbine halls' ventilation); General Electric, or GE (low-voltage switchgear system); Siemens (generator transformers); Steel Services Direct, or SSD (steel, pipes and wax plants); GB Bearings (supplier of HSR horizontal bearing assemblies and profile bore bearings); Sulzer Pumps South Africa, subcontracted by Actom (fabrication of 48 pumps for boiler feed, booster and condensate extraction duties); Steloy Castings, subcontracted by Sulzer Pumps South Africa (supply of chrome steel components for the pumps); ThyssenKrupp Materials Handling, or TKMH (coal stockyard equipment); a.b.e. Construction Chemicals (supply of waterproofing, flooring and sealant products, as well as other general construction products); LP Services consortium (engineering, procurement and construction contract for the low-pressure services); Lighting Structures (design, manufacture, supply and installation of Hi Masts); Basil Read (ash-dump infrastructure); ELB Engineering Services (terrace coal and ash); Actom (electrical power installation, chimney and silos); Aqua Engineering (water treatment); Konecranes (heavy-duty cranes) and Wade Walker (electrical and instrumentation subcontract).

On Budget and on Time?
The project will not meet the end-of-year deadline for the flow of first power and will cost R105-billion, excluding indirect costs, instead of R91.2-billion, as was initially announced.

Contact Details for Project Information
a.b.e. Construction Chemicals, tel +27 11 306 9000.
Actom, tel +27 11 820 5111or fax +27 11 820 5100.
Afrimat investor and corporate relations, tel +27 11 325 5944 or fax +27 11 325 5942.
Areva T&D, tel +27 11 820 5037.
BKS Group, tel +27 12 421 3500, fax +27 12 421 3501 or email group@bks.co.za.
BroKrew, tel +27 11 668 6300 or fax +27 11 955 1958.
Chobe Crushers, tel +27 14 763 5130.
Clyde Bergemann Africa, tel +2 7 11 704 0580, fax +27 11 704 0597 or email enquiry@cbz.co.za.
Clyde Bergemann Power Group, tel +49 281 815 101, fax +49 281 815 184 or email info@clydebergemannpowergroup.com.
DSE Structural Engineers & Contractors, tel +27 11 871 4111, fax +27 11 871 4141 or email dse@grinaker-lta.co.za.
Energy Fabrication, tel +27 11 456 1000, fax +27 86 637 1756 or email info@energyfabrication.co.za.
Eskom media desk, tel +27 800 3304/3309/3343/3378, fax +27 11 800 3805 or email mediadesk@eskom.co.za.
Eskom national call centre, tel 0860 037 566.
Exxaro Resources, tel +27 12 307 4189.
GB Bearings, tel +27 11 974 1291 or fax +27 11 974 1468.
GEA Aircooled Systems, tel +27 11 861 1521.
GE corporate investor communications, tel +1 203 373 2460.
Genrec Engineering, tel +27 11 876 2300, fax +27 11 827 1733 or email sales@genreceng.co.za.
Hansen Transmissions, tel +27 11 571 9611.
HPA, tel +27 11 260 4300, fax +27 11 656 3609 or email info@hitachi-power.co.za; or media liaison Pamella Radebe, tel +27 11 260 4300 or email p_radebe@hitachi-power.co.za.
HPE, tel +49 203 80 38 0 or fax +49 203 80 38 1809.
Kwikspace, tel +27 11 903 8993 or email barney@kwikspace.co.za.
IWC, tel +27 11 466 0699, fax +27 11 466 8180 or email mail@iwc.co.za.
Lesedi Nuclear Services marketing manager Shane Pereira, tel +27 21 525 1300, fax +27 21 525 1333 or email shane.pereira@lesedins.co.za.
Mikropul, tel +27 478 0456, fax +27 478 0371 or email sales@mikropul.co.za.
M&R, tel +27 11 723 2080; or group communications executive Ed Jardim, tel +27 11 456 6200, fax +27 11 455 1322, cell +27 83 357 6282 or email eduard.jardim@murrob.com.
Parsons Brinckerhoff, tel +27 11 787 4141, fax +27 11 886 0359 or email project@pbworld.com.
Roshcon, tel +27 11 629 8000 or fax +27 11 626 3460.
Sarens, tel +27 11 861 3800, fax +27 11 861 3899 or email info@sarenssa.co.za.
SSD, tel +27 11 828 0439 or fax +27 11 828 2810.
Royal HaskoningDHV, tel +27 11 798 6000, fax +27 11 798 6005 or email corporate@rhdhv.com.
Steloy Castings, tel +27 13 933 3331, fax +27 13 933 3653 or email info@steloy.com.
Sulzer Pumps South Africa, tel +27 11 820 6252 or fax +27 11 820 6205; or Gavin Doran, email gavin.doran@sulzer.com.
TKMH, tel +27 11 236 1000 or fax +27 11 236 1235.
Voith Turbo, tel +27 11 418 4076 or fax +27 11 418 4059.
Wetback Contracts, tel +27 11 392 8000, fax +27 11 392 5856 or email info@wetback.co.za.
Lighting Structures, tel +27 87 310 1000, fax +27 86 699 6999.
Konecranes, tel +27 11 864 2800.
Wade Walker, tel +27 11 466 0377.