Medupi power station project, South Africa

31st January 2014

By: Creamer Media Reporter

  

Font size: - +

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 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 and is designed to be flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) ready.

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 the second half of 2014.

Latest Developments

Outgoing Eskom CEO Brian Dames has confirmed that Eskom has “exercised its contractual rights” by appointing Siemens to replace Alstom as the supplier of the boiler protection system (BPS) at the Medupi power station project.

The BPS forms part of a larger control and instrumentation (C&I) package for which Alstom remains responsible. Alstom South Africa’s Riccardo Pierobon described the BPS as a small part of its overall C&I contract, adding that the other systems were “performing to specification”. The French multinational is also installing the turbines and generators, which represents the “vast bulk of Alstom’s work on this plant”.

Dames insists that the change to the BPS contract has not resulted in a revision of Eskom’s guidance that Medupi’s first 800 MW unit, or Unit 6, will become operational during the second half of 2014. “As of last week, when we sat down as a team and looked at the schedule, it was still before the end of the year,” says Dames, while refusing to provide a more precise timeframe.

He has also dismissed suggestions that his departure, which was announced on December 5, is in any way linked to speculation that the problems at Medupi are worse than what has been communicated.
In July last year, Eskom announced that Unit 6 had been delayed from its already deferred start date of the end of 2013, with the postponement attributed partly to the failure of BPS factory acceptance tests, as well as problems relating to boiler welds, and persistent labour strife. In early December, Eskom confirmed it was interrogating a “suitable contingency plan”, should Alstom fail to meet contractual milestones, saying the action was being taken to mitigate schedule risks.

The value of the new BPS contract and the financial implications have not been disclosed. Dames has warned, however, that “there are obviously going to be lot of legal issues around this”.

“Our view is that we are exercising our rights under the contract, that Alstom is accountable to deliver the C&I system for us and that, under those rights, we will make sure that we are protected both in terms of our risk and the cost.”

Eskom and contractors across the utility’s various construction sites have laid claims against each other and Dames predicts that the legal issues surrounding the current build programme are likely to continue until “well after these stations are commissioned”.

Pierobon has refused to comment on whether Alstom plans to challenge the BPS contract termination, reiterating only the group’s commitment to the successful completion of the Medupi project.
Alstom remains responsible for the other elements of the C&I system at Medupi, including the balance-of-plant operations, the field instrumentation and the unit-control system.
Eskom has not yet decided whether it will implement a similar BPS solution at the Kusile plant, which is under development in Mpumalanga. However, Dames has said that a decision will be made in the not-too-distant future. He says that hybrid control solutions are in place at many of the company’s other sites, but that it will be critical that the interface requirements are met by each supplier.

Pierobon has said that Alstom continue to meet Eskom’s requirements and it is hoped that the issue of interface will not delay implementation.

Besides the boiler-weld and C&I issues, labour relations remain a key priority at the Medupi site. Officially four months of activity were lost in 2013, owing to unrest, but in reality, it took even longer for the strike-prone site to be remobilised and there were still sporadic reports of disruption. “The partnership agreement is now in place, but that doesn’t mean everything is fine because pretty soon we are going to go through a phase of [demobilisation], as many of the work packages come to an end.”
Meanwhile, progress at Medupi continues, with the utility reporting in its latest New Build News that:
• the Unit 3 feed water tank has been pressure tested successfully, and the remainder of the in and out water piping can now be installed.
• the turbine hall Unit 4 lube oil room has been handed over for installation of the equipment for the turbine lube oil system.
• the civil works for the coal stockyard pollution control dam has been completed.
• two of the auxiliary plant fans have been safety cleared and test runs completed, with the area subsequently being declared safe for commissioning and testing activities. Four of the five auxiliary systems have been safety cleared and commissioning is in progress.
• the C&I distributive control system (DCS) at the coal silo for feeder No 1 and 2, located at the Exxaro coal mine, has been safety cleared and is ready for commissioning.
• the ash dump substation switchgear room epoxy has been completed. This will provide access to allow for the installation of the cabling for the ash dump system and to connect the switchgear. This will enable the power up of the ash dump system.
• the oil pipeline can be installed from the unloading bay to the bulk fuel oil pump house for bulk fuel oil unloading.
• the bulk fuel offloading system has been successfully commissioned and the latest load of fuel oil – 200 t of bunker 150 fuel oil – can now be offloaded using the DCS controls.

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 (C&I); 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 and BPS ); Steel Services Direct, or SSD (steel, pipes and wax plants); GB Bearings (supply 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 revised 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.
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; 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.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION