Name of the Project
Medupi power station project.

Location
Medupi is located on an 883 ha site in Lephalale, Limpopo, in South Africa.

Project Owner/s
State-owned power utility Eskom.

Project Description
Medupi will be the fourth-largest coal-fired power plant and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world. The power station will comprise six units with an installed capacity of 4 764 MW.

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, compared with that of older boilers, thereby providing greater efficiency. Supercritical technology will result in more efficient use of natural resources, such as water and coal, and will have improved environmental performance and footprint.

It is the first baseload coal-fired power 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 forms part of the utility’s integrated strategic electricity plan and is designed to be flue-gas desulphurisation ready.

Potential Job Creation
About 18 000 construction contractor employees and 2 000 supporting staff were employed at the peak of construction.

Capital Expenditure
In July 2016, Eskom officially updated its cost-to-completion estimates for Medupi. The State-owned utility reported that Medupi was now expected to cost R145-billion, rather than the earlier revised estimate of R105-billion.

The cumulative cost incurred on the project for the year ended March 31, 2019, was not available at the time of going to print.

Planned Start /End Date
Construction activities started in May 2007. The power station is expected to have reached full installed capacity by 2020.

The first unit, Unit 6, was synchronised to the grid on March 2, 2015. It attained full power (796 MW) on May 26, 2015, and attained commercial operation on August 23, 2015.

Unit 5 was first synchronised to the national grid on September 8, 2016. It reached full power (796 MW) on  December 17, 2016, and attained commercial operation on  April 3, 2017.

Unit 4 was first synchronised to the national grid on May 31, 2017. It reached full power (796 MW) on June 19, 2017, and attained commercial operation on November 28, 2017.

Unit 3 was first synchronised to the national grid on  April 8, 2018. It reached full power on (796 MW) May 16, 2018, and attained commercial operation on June 28, 2019. 

Unit 2 reached full power on November 12, 2018, and was synchronised to the national grid on October 7, 2018.

Latest Developments
ELB Engineering Services has been successful in assisting Eskom’s Medupi power station to bring the dust handling plants under control.

Now that the plant is in a more stable condition, ELB has implemented a preventive maintenance strategy, which is expected to help increase the availability and performance of the plant, thereby allowing units 2 and 3 at Medupi to continue supplying power to the grid without any substantial delays.

Since January, ELB has been assisting with the operation and maintenance of units 2 and 3 at the dust handling plant and ash storage Silo 1, during a time when the embattled power utility’s systems were under pressure.

Owing to numerous technical and maintainability issues, which ELB said was “outside the control of Eskom”, both parties worked to overcome these challenges.

Since the start of the year, ELB’s operation and maintenance teams, in conjunction with Eskom, have managed to contain the dust leaks and replace faulty equipment, with minimum outages of the two units to ensure supply of power to the grid.

The plant has since then largely been returned to a stable condition and any dust emissions are repaired immediately, ELB has said, adding that this “ensures a clean plant and negates any health and safety issues”.

As a result, availability and performance of the plant has increased to “a reasonable level”.

ELB’s maintenance team was led by a team of ELB engineers who have extensive experience in dust handling systems, and who worked with the maintenance crews at the “coal face” to ensure that the correct work was prioritised.

ELB’s team also provided suggestions on how to optimise the system’s performance and continuously reviewed work procedures, which led to a reduction in the time taken to complete maintenance tasks.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Principal Contracts:
Parsons Brinckerhoff (execution partner); Roshcon (enabling civils); Rula Bulk Materials Handling (coal overland conveyor and ash dump conveyor); Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa, or MHMPSA (boiler); Alstom S&E Africa (turbine); LP Services consortium (low-pressure services); Alula Water (water treatment plant); Karrena-Concor joint venture, or JV (chimneys and silos); MPS JV (main civils); Actom (electrical power installation and medium-voltage switchgear); General Electric (low-voltage switchgear system); Siemens (auxiliary transformers and generator transformers); Standby Systems (uninterruptible power supply); Alstom C&I (control and instrumentation); Honeywell Automation & Control Solutions South Africa (fire detection and access control); 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, ash dump infrastructure, clarifiers and coal stock yard extension); NCI (diesel generators); ThyssenKrupp Materials Handling (coal stockyard equipment); Clyde Bergemann Africa (dust handling and conditioning systems); ELB Engineering Services (terrace coal and ash, dust handling plants); Aveng Grinaker-LTA (buildings phases 1 and 3); Nugen Technologies (Pty) Ltd (nitrogen); Stefanutti Stocks/Mathomamayo JV (raw-water pumpstation and substation) and Exxaro (coal supply).

On Budget and on Time?
The project has been affected by technical and labour difficulties. However, measures have been put in place to accelerate progress, which has been evident through the latest achievements of the project milestones as per the project plan.

Contact Details for Project Information
Eskom media desk, email mediadesk@eskom.co.za.