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Medupi power station project, South Africa

30th October 2015

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

  

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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 and the largest 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 somewhat unique because Medupi is being built in reverse order – traditionally Eskom has always started building Unit 1 and ended with Unit 6. This new approach is the result of the rock agglomeration on the southern side of the site, which was excavated and reused for 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 is R105-billion.

Duration
Construction activities started in May 2007.  The first unit, Unit 6, will be synchronised to the grid in the first quarter of 2015.

Latest Developments
Medupi power station project director Roman Crookes has said that several actions have been taken to transfer the lessons learnt from the much-delayed commissioning of Unit 6 at the Medupi power station to the other five units, which will be introduced in stages between 2017 and 2020.

Unit 6 first began feeding power into the grid in March and has been producing at full capacity since May 26, 2015. However, it officially entered commercial operation on August 23.

Medupi is being built in reverse order in terms of Eskom’s right-to-left nomenclature when viewing its coal-fired power stations with the units in front of the stacks. The decision to reverse the order at Medupi was based on the discovery of a rock conglomeration on the southern side of the site, which made it more cost effective to build from left to right.

Crookes says Unit 6 has contributed materially to the reduction in load-shedding incidents, having ramped up steadily from feeding 20 277 MWh into the grid in March, to 352 676 MWh by August.

During September the unit’s contribution rose further to 387 535 MWh, despite heat-wave conditions, indicating that Medupi’s updated air-cooled-condenser design made it less prone to the vacuum losses associated with its neighbouring dry-cooled plant, Matimba.

The focus of the project team has since shifted to ensuring the introduction of the subsequent units, which would collectively add nearly 4 000 MW.

Actions taken to accelerate Unit 5 include:
• a strengthened quality-of-governance and management team, assisted by Balfour Beatty;
• tightened controls and oversight on contractor performance through the introduction of a daily forum to resolve construction issues, the initiation of independent quality reviews to avoid defects and the creation of a chief executive productivity forum;
• the escalation of project controls to manage schedule and cost revisions;
• strengthened industrial relations;
• embedded project supervision; and
• the implementation of holistic claims and constructor management strategy.
Crookes has said detailed information relating to the claims submitted by contractors is subject to confidentiality, but indicates that 92% of the claims submitted have been resolved.

In responding to the question of why the schedule cannot be accelerated further in light of the lessons learned during the building of Unit 6, he explains that some of the problems have been “engineered” into the subsequent units and now have to be unraveled.

“When you start building a power station and all the products that go into it, the products are built fairly quickly on a production line. So by the time we had discovered some of the problems, it was already in at least two or three other units.”

Some of the technical problems with Unit 6’s boiler, for instance, had migrated to Unit 5 and Unit 4 before they were discovered.

“The second component is that we want a reasonable separation between the introduction of the units. We can’t end up commissioning two units simultaneously, for resource capacity and logistical reasons,” Crookes has explained, adding that developments on the Medupi site also need to be synchronised with progress being made on the 4 800 MW Kusile project, with a sharing of resources across sites.

“It’s an ongoing juggling match,” Crookes has said.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Main packages:
Parsons Brinckerhoff (execution partner); Roshcon (enabling civils); Rula Bulk Materials Handling (coal overland conveyor and ash dump conveyor); Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa, or MHPSA (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 (uninterruptible power supply); Alstom C&I (control and instrumentation); 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 phases 1 and 3) and Tubular (supply and erection of conveyors).

On Budget and on Time?
Following various delays, including a protracted strike that resulted in work on the project being delayed for more than six months in 2013 alone, Eskom initially indicated that synchronisation of Unit 6 would take place in late December 2014.

There had also been delays regarding the boiler blow-through process, which was one of the final commissioning steps ahead of grid synchronisation. The process is used to clean the steam of residue and particles prior to feeding it through to the turbine. It was then indicated that the schedule for first synchronisation would be shifted to late February or early March.

Eskom and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa, the boiler contractor, subsequently set up a joint technical task team to review the blow-through procedure ahead of future blow-through tests at Medupi and Kusile.

Contact Details for Project Information
Eskom project director 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.
MHPSA head of sales and business development David Milner, tel +27 11 260 4300, fax +27 11 656 3609 or email info@za.mhps.com.
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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