Steel products and related services company Structa Group’s manufacturing, machining and refurbishment services subsidiaries Turnmill Proquip Engineering and One Steel Engineering are supplying flue-ducting material to State-owned power utility Eskom’s Kusile power station, in Mpumalanga.

In addition, another Structa subsidiary – structural engineering and manufacturing company CIS Engineering – is supplying distribution pylons for Eskom’s distribution and transmission projects.

Structa Group chairperson Piet Coetzer notes that the companies ensured high quality, sufficient capacity and a quick production turnaround on the Kusile and Medupi flue ducting, while the distribution poles supplied by CIS Engineering were specially designed and enhanced for Eskom – offering a cost-effective solution.

“Eskom requires reliable, quality products, which also meet cost and schedule requirements,” he emphasises, pointing out that, therefore, Structa offers a “one-stop-shop solution – from design through to delivery on site”, with continuous innovation to supply the electricity entity with the best solutions.

Meanwhile, Turnmill Proquip Engineering has also supplied Eskom with more than 200 t of material for boiler ducting since 2010 on behalf of Japanese multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate company Hitachi Power Africa.

The company supplied about 120 t a month of the material to the Kusile power station, Engineering News reported in May, last year.

The Kusile power station will comprise six units, each rated at about 800 MW installed capacity. The power station is located near the existing Kendal power station, in Mpumalanga. The first synchronisation of the Kusile Unit 1 is scheduled for the first half of 2017, and Eskom reported in April that the power station is expected to be fully operational in 2021.

Since Structa has been supplying products and services to Eskom for the past 12 years, Coetzer says that the group would like to become involved in providing maintenance and refurbishment services for the electricity entity. Structa currently offers full on-site maintenance support services to various clients, including a petrochemicals major, he says.

Engineering News reported in February that a programme had been developed to manage the maintenance backlog, which Eskom faced at its coal-fired power stations. The backlog was responsible for the decrease in Eskom’s energy availability factor. The Department of Energy confirmed at the 2015 African Energy Indaba that it could take between 20 and 30 months to reverse the backlog.

Coetzer concludes that, the group can also offer several products to the renewables industry, such as piping and storage vessels for solar plants, support structures for solar phot- ovoltaic plants and material for wind turbine masts.

South Africa is procuring 5 243 MW from 79 wind and solar projects, in four competitive bidding rounds in the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, with an additional 6 300 MW of renewable energy suggested for the power pool and which is in line with the Integrated Resource Plan 2010-2030.