Name of the Project
Medupi power station project.
Location
Medupi is located on an 883 ha site in Lephalale, Limpopo, in South Africa.
Client
State-owned power utility Eskom.
Project Description
Medupi will be a dry-cooled, coal-fired, baseload power-generating plant comprising six 800 MW units, with a total 4 800 MW installed capacity. It will be the fourth-largest coal-fired power plant and the largest direct dry cooling plant 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, 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.
Jobs to be Created
About 18 000 construction contractor employees and 2 000 supporting staff were employed at the peak of construction.
Value
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, 2018, is R112.68-billion (March 2016: R105.2-billion), against the revised budget of R145-billion. All amounts exclude capitalised borrowing costs.
Duration
Construction activities started in May 2007.
The first unit, Unit 6, was first synchronised to the grid in the first quarter, beginning March 2015. On August 23, 2015, Unit 6 of Medupi became commercially operational.
Unit 5 was successfully synchronised to the national grid on September 8, 2016, ahead of schedule, and reached full load on December 17, 2016. After completing performance, reliability and compliance tests, the unit attained commercial operation on April 3, 2017, also ahead of schedule.
Unit 4 was synchronised in May 31, 2017, and achieved commercial operation status on November 28, 2017, ahead of the scheduled timeline of July 2018.
Unit 3 reached first synchronisation in April 2018.
The completion of the entire six-unit Medupi project has been revised to 2020/21
Latest Developments
The remaining units at the Medupi project are progressing well against the revised schedule.
Medupi Unit 3 achieved first synchronisation in April this year, enabling it to feed electricity into the national grid during performance and optimisation tests. Eskom expects it to go into commercial operation in December 2018, ahead of the revised schedule.
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); Aveng Grinaker-LTA (buildings phases 1 and 3); Nugen Technologies (Pty) Ltd (nitrogen); Stefanuti Stocks/Mathomamayo JV (raw water pump station 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 the progress and recover the lost time. This 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.