State-owned power utility Eskom announced on Monday that Unit 5 at the Medupi coal-fired power station project, in Limpopo, has reached commercial operation.
“Commercial operation status ensures technical compliance to statutory, safety and legal requirements. This signatory milestone marks the contractual handover of the unit from the primary contractors to Eskom, which means that Medupi Unit 5 is now part of the Eskom generation fleet,” interim group CEO Matshela Koko said in a statement.
Unit 5 achieved successful synchronisation on September 8 and, following further testing and optimising, its full power of 800 MW was attained on December 17, 2016.
Medupi Unit 6 became commercially operational on August 23, 2015.