Name of the Project
Medupi power station project.

Location
Medupi is located on an 883 ha site in Lephalale, Limpopo, in South Africa.

Project Owner/s
State-owned power utility Eskom.

Project Description
Medupi will be the fourth-largest coal-fired power plant and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world. The power station will comprise six units with an installed capacity of 4 764 MW.

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.

Potential Job Creation
About 18 000 construction contractor employees and 2 000 supporting staff were employed at the peak of construction.

Capital Expenditure
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 until the year ended March 31, 2019, was not available at the time of going to print.

Planned Start /End Date
Medupi was initially scheduled to be fully operational in 2013, instead it may now be completed only in 2021.

The first unit, Unit 6, was synchronised to the grid on March 2, 2015. It attained full power (796 MW) on May 26, 2015, and attained commercial operation on August 23, 2015.

Unit 5 was first synchronised to the national grid on September 8, 2016. It reached full power (796 MW) on  December 17, 2016, and attained commercial operation on April 3, 2017.

Unit 4 was first synchronised to the national grid on May 31, 2017. It reached full power (796 MW) on June 19, 2017, and attained commercial operation on November 28, 2017.

Unit 3 was first synchronised to the national grid on  April 8, 2018. It reached full power on (796 MW) May 16, 2018, and attained commercial operation on June 28, 2019. 

Unit 2 was synchronised to the national grid on October 7, 2018. It reached commercial operation status on November 12, 2019.

Unit 1 was synchronised to the grid on August 27, 2019. The unit is expected to reach full commercial operation ahead of its scheduled deadline in November 2020.

Latest Developments
The Medupi coal-fired power station produced first power from of its last unit on August 27, 2019, making it the last of Medupi's six units to be synchronised to the national grid.

First synchronisation or first power is when the generator in the unit is electrically connected to the national power grid so that it is aligned with all the other generators.

Unit 1 will generate and deliver electricity intermittently into the grid over several months during a testing and optimisation phase to ensure that the country has stable supply.

The first synchronisation of Unit 1 marks a key milestone towards full commercial operation, which is scheduled for November 2020.

The testing and optimisation of the unit will result in its generating full power of 800 MW, taking it a step closer to being commercially operational, which generally occurs within six to nine months after first synchronisation.

Meanwhile, Eskom has proposed conveyor belt modifications at Medupi. Among those is splitting the coal feed to the coal stockyard and bypass, to facilitate simultaneous stacking and direct feed between the generation units. The block chute detectors for the overland conveyor have been repositioned, while a new conveyor and reclaiming plant are being proposed for installation at the excess coal stockyard. The conveyor take-up tower will be modified to include shock absorbers. Cameras are being installed for the remote monitoring of the overland conveyors. The modifications will be subject to feasibility studies and any costs will be covered under the stations’ maintenance budget.

To deal with design defects, Eskom shut down its Medupi Unit 3 for 75 days from January 2020 until mid-April 2020.

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, dust handling plants); Aveng Grinaker-LTA (buildings phases 1 and 3); Nugen Technologies (nitrogen); Stefanutti Stocks/Mathomamayo JV (raw-water pumpstation and substation) and Exxaro (coal supply).

Contact Details for Project Information
Eskom media desk, email mediadesk@eskom.co.za.