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
Eskom did not shift its April 9 deadline for returning Medupi Unit 3 to service, despite work restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The unit was shut for 75 days on January 26 to address defects that emerged, mostly in relation to the boiler, after the unit entered into commercial operation in June last year.

Procedures were put in place to limit the number of people working on the unit to 90 at any given time in response to the Covid-19 restrictions imposed by government.

By contrast, all work has been stopped at Eskom’s Kusile units 4, 5 and 6 for the duration of the lockdown.

The defects being addressed at Medupi Unit 3 are generic to all the units that have been installed to date at the Medupi, as well asthe Kusile power stations, which have been preventing the coal-fired units from attaining output levels in line with their 800 MW nameplates.

It emerged earlier this year that most of the operating units at Medupi and Kusile were delivering at rates of between 350 MW and 400 MW.

This poor performance is partially reflected in the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 (IRP 2019), which includes a derated output assumption for both plants.

The derating contributed to the IRP 2019’s estimate of an immediate supply deficit of between 2 000 MW and 3 000 MW.

Eskom’s own estimation, ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, put the shortfall at closer to 5 000 MW, owing largely to the underperformance of Medupi and Kusile, and the increased unreliability of Eskom’s existing coal fleet.

All Medupi’s six units, besides Unit 1, are in commercial operation. 

COO Jan Oberholzer has told Engineering News and Mining Weekly that Eskom is eager for Medupi Unit 3 to re-enter service so that the technical solutions being implemented to remedy the defects can be assessed and then deployed across other units as outages are performed.

The current outage plan envisages the defects being addressed across all six Medupi units over 18 months.

Most of the modifications are being made to the milling plant, the pulse jet fabric filter, the reheater spray flow and the gas air heater.

The modification programme is being overseen by a steering committee involving senior managers from Eskom and Mitsubishi Hitachi, the supplier of the boilers at Medupi and Kusile.

A governance framework has also been finalised, which Oberholzer has said is guided by the principle of implementing the technical solutions while dealing with the commercial effects thereof in parallel.

Eskom and Mitsubishi Hitachi have also agreed to share the commercial burden on a 50:50 basis, but Oberholzer has said it is premature to offer a final cost estimate.

Eskom is still working on a cost-to-completion estimates for Medupi of R145-billion.

Oberholzer is confident that the final Medupi unit, Unit 1, will enter into commercial operation before the end of 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.