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Medupi power station project, South Africa

10th October 2014

  

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

Client
Eskom.

Project Description
Medupi is located on an 883 ha site in Lephalale, Limpopo.  It will be a dry-cooled coal-fired, baseload power-generating plant, comprising six 800 MW units, with a 4 800 MW installed capacity. It will be the fourth-largest coal plant in the southern hemisphere and 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 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 is unique because Medupi is being built backwards – traditionally Eskom has always started building Unit 1 and ended with Unit 6. This new approach is the result of the rock conglomeration on the southern side, which is excavated and reused as the engineering fill on the northern side.

The project will form part of the utility's integrated strategic electricity plan and is designed to be flue-gas desulphurisation ready.

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

Duration
Construction activities started in May 2007.  The first unit, Unit 6, will be synchronised to the grid in the second half of 2014.

Latest Developments
Eskom has fired-up the first gas burner of the Medupi power station’s Unit 6, which is scheduled to be synchronised at the end of this year.

The firing of the gas burner, which follows the filling of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank and the safety clearance of the distribution piping from the LPG tank to the LPG burner skids, supports the ignition of oil combustion for the first oil fire.

“Medupi is now well on its way towards the first oil fire,” Eskom said in a construction update.

Meanwhile, Eskom plans to announce the completion date of Medupi Unit 5 – the second 794 MW unit at the Limpopo power project – by the latest March next year, having indicated that the original commissioning interval of six months following the introduction of the first unit, Unit 6, was no longer possible.

However, the utility could not be drawn directly on commentary by University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business Professor Anton Eberhard, suggesting that there would be a two-and-a-half-year gap between the first two units.

Writing in Business Day, Eberhard, who is also a member of the National Planning Commission said: “What has not been made public, but has been admitted privately by senior Eskom managers, is that the second Medupi unit — originally due six months after the first — will be commissioned only two-and-a-half-years later. Kusile’s first unit is due to come online only in 2016, then there is the long, difficult task of commissioning the remaining units. Full power may be available only in 2020.”

In response to Engineering News Online questions on the expected interval, Eskom indicated that it had “committed publicly to have Medupi power station fully commissioned by 2019”.

“The first unit of Medupi (Unit 6) will be synchronised in December 2014, with full power to the grid six months later. We have also indicated that the commissioning of the next unit (Unit 5) within six months of bringing Unit 6 on line, as initially forecasted, was no longer possible due to challenges of quality and productivity that we experienced on Unit 6.”

Eskom has indicated that the focus is currently on the completion of Unit 6, as this represents “a big milestone in South Africa’s capacity expansion programme”. The overall programme is designed to add 17 400 MW of additional capacity by 2019, with 6 134 MW already commissioned.

“We are engaging our contractors on a continuous basis on improving productivity and they have responded positively by deploying senior managers in construction and engineering to beef up the current teams. The lessons learnt at Medupi and improved execution models are applied at Kusile power station too.”

Eskom has also stressed that its warning of five more years of power shortages is a “worst-case scenario”, which will depend on a variety of issues.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Main packages:
Parsons Brinckerhoff (execution partner); Roshcon (enabling civils); Rula Bulk Material Handling (coal overland conveyor and ash dump conveyor); Hitachi Power Africa, or HPA (boiler); Alstom S&E Africa (turbine); LP Services consortium (engineering, procurement and construction contract for the low-pressure services); Ovivo Aqua SA (water treatment plant); Karrena-Concor joint venture, or JV (chimneys and silos); MPS JV (main civils); Actom (electrical power installation); General Electric (low-voltage switchgear system); Actom (medium-voltage switchgear); Siemens (auxiliary transformers and generator transformers); Standby Systems (UPS); Alstom C&I (C&I); Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions South Africa (condition-based maintenance systems); T-Systems (information technology (IT) and IT infrastructure); Siemens ACI Open Consortium (laboratory and analysers); Civcon/G4 JV (miscellaneous infrastructure and reservoirs); Basil Read (buildings Phase 2, ash dump infrastructure and clarifiers); NCI (diesel generators); ThyssenKrupp Materials Handling (coal stockyard equipment); Clyde Bergemann Africa (dust handling and conditioning systems); ELB Engineering Services (terrace coal and ash); Aveng Grinaker-LTA (buildings phase 1 and 3) and Tubular (supply and erection of conveyors).

Other:
Energy Engineered Products (supply of high-performance alloy, stainless steel valves, pipes, fittings and flanges) and Turnmill Proquip Engineering (fabrication of substation steelwork and construction of the exhaust-steam ducting).

On Budget and on Time?
It is well behind schedule and over budget, owing to a combination of labour strife, problems with boiler welds and the control and instrumentation system.
Power from the project was originally expected to be introduced from 2011, but following initial delays the schedule was first extended to the end of 2013 and then to the “second half of 2014”.

After the main boiler, turbine and civil contracts had been placed by late 2008, Medupi’s cost was estimated at R87-billion. That figure was later revised to R91.2-billion in June 2012 and then to R105-billion last year.

Contact Details for Project Information
Eskom project manager Roman Crookes, email roman.crookes@eskom.co.za.
Eskom media desk, email mediadesk@eskom.co.za.

Main packages:
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.
Rula Bulk Materials Handling, tel +27 11 795 1040, fax +27 11 795 1004 or email info@rula.co.za.
Ovivo Aqua SA, tel +27 11 886 0266.
Actom, tel +27 11 820 5111 or fax +27 11 820 5100.
GE corporate investor communications, tel +1 203 373 2460.
Siemens, tel +27 11 652 2000 or fax +27 11 652 2711.
Standby Systems, tel +27 861 782 632, fax +27 11 794 3598 or email standbypower@mweb.co.za.
Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions South Africa, tel +27 11 695 8000 or fax +27 11 805 1554.
Civcon/G4 JV, tel  +27 11 206 9660, fax +27 11 316 6604 or email info@civcon.co.za; tel +27 11 396 1793, fax +27 11 396 2344 or email info@g4.co.za.
Basil Read, tel +27 11 418 6300 or fax +27 11 418 6333.
NCI, tel +27 21 553 8840, fax +27 21 553 8841 or email info@nci-sa.co.za.
ThyssenKrupp Materials Handling, tel +27 11 236 1000, fax +27 11 236 1235 or email info.tkmh@thyssenkrupp.com.
Clyde Bergemann Africa, tel +2 7 11 704 0580, fax +27 11 704 0597 or email enquiry@cbz.co.za.
ELB Engineering Services, tel +27 11 772 1400, fax +27 11 325 6680 or email sales@elb.co.za.
Aveng Grinaker LTA, tel +27 11 578 6000 or fax +27 11 578 6161.

Other contractors:
a.b.e. Construction Chemicals, tel +27 11 306 9000.
Afrimat investor and corporate relations, tel +27 11 325 5944 or fax +27 11 325 5942.
BKS Group, tel +27 12 421 3500, fax +27 12 421 3501 or email group@bks.co.za.
DSE Structural Engineers & Contractors, tel +27 11 871 4111, fax +27 11 871 4141 or email dse@grinaker-lta.co.za.
Exxaro Resources, tel +27 12 307 4189.
GEA Aircooled Systems, tel +27 11 861 1521.
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.
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Europe, 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, tel +27 21 525 1300 or fax +27 21 525 1333.
Mikropul, tel +27 478 0456, fax +27 478 0371 or email sales@mikropul.co.za.
Murray & Roberts, tel +27 11 723 2080.
Royal HaskoningDHV, tel +27 11 798 6000, fax +27 11 798 6005 or email corporate@rhdhv.com.
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.
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.
TKMH, tel +27 11 236 1000 or fax +27 11 236 1235.
Tubular, tel +27 11 553 2000, fax +27 11 450 2160 or email th@tubular.co.za.
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 or fax +27 86 699 6999.
Konecranes, tel +27 11 864 2800.
Wade Walker, tel +27 11 466 0377.
Energy Engineered Products, tel  +27 11 466 1926 or fax +27 11 466 1692.
Turnmill Proquip Engineering, tel +27 16 986 0030 or fax +27 16 986 0127.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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