Medupi
Parliament’s portfolio committees on Public Enterprises and Energy are satisfied with the progress made on construction at State-owned power utility Eskom’s Medupi power station in Lephalale, Limpopo.
Members of the joint committees conducted an oversight visit to the station this week to assess the progress made in completing of Unit 6 – the first unit set to be synchronised to the national grid, in December.
Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises chairperson Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba told Engineering News Online that the visit assisted committee members in understanding the full scale of the project.
“Seeing this, I fully appreciate the challenges that Eskom has been facing in constructing the station . . . challenges of labour unrest and price escalations, because any project of this magnitude is bound to be faced with several challenges along the way,” she averred.
She said the committees were, in particular, impressed that 95% of the workforce and service providers working on the project were South Africans.
Letsatsi-Duba added that prior to the visit, she worried that, because of the nature of the construction process fewer and fewer personnel would be required as the project progressed and several jobs would be lost along the way, but her fears were dispelled by a presentation on Medupi’s skills development and retention programmes by Medupi project director Roman Crookes.
“It was highlighted to us that, since the project began, [Eskom’s] training programmes have produced several boilermakers, generator manufacturers and large-scale project managers among many of the rare skills that the country is in dire need of.
“These rare skills can be used on other infrastructure development projects. We have advised Medupi to [sign] longer term contracts [with] some of the special skilled employees to ensure that they are not poached by other companies outside of the country,” Letsatsi-Duba stated.
COMMITTED TO MEETING DEADLINE
Crookes told Engineering News Online that the Medupi project team was committed to ensuring that the first unit would start the process of synchronisation in December.
All units of the coal-fired power station were scheduled to be commissioned by 2019 and would generate a combined 4 764 MW.
Crookes explained that most of the challenges facing the project team related to construction and commissioning.
“It would be misleading to say that it is easy. There is a huge amount of work that still needs to be done but we have a dedicated team of Medupi employees and contractors that are working around the clock to make sure that we give the [possible] synchronising [of] Unit 6 by the end [of the] year the greatest [chance of] success,” he elaborated.
Crookes added that the project team was focused on meeting all its deadlines, and had considered possible scenarios that might delay completion and developed plans to quickly mitigate any challenge that might occur.