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 those 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 an 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 (FGD) 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 (796 MW) on 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
Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy has reported that she has had no formal communication from Eskom with regard to it potentially not installing FGD systems at the Medupi power station that was in line with a previous commitment to do so.

FGD technologies are used to remove sulphur dioxide from flue gases and one of the conditions of a 2010 World Bank loan of $3.75-billion to Eskom was that Medupi would progressively install such systems across all six units during future maintenance intervals.

In an interview with EE Business Intelligence MD Chris Yelland, the Minister reiterated that any plant built after 2010, including Medupi and Kusile, would have to comply with the country’s prescribed sulphur dioxide limit of 500 mg/Nm3. Kusile’s units would be fitted with FGD during construction.

“The department is a regulator, and the regulations say that power plants must comply. There is no regulatory environment that allows any institution to say that it will not comply. In some instances, they may be able to comply only over a period of time, and plants can then apply to come into full compliance over time,” Creecy said during the interview.

In May, Eskom confirmed that it was exploring alternatives to the installation of FGD units at Medupi.

Retrofitting the units, Eskom indicated, would involve capital expenditure of far more than R35-billion, which was difficult in light of Eskom’s financial constraints. It would also make the power station more water intensive and reduce its overall nameplate capacity by 90 MW.

The assessment of the alternatives would continue for between six to nine months, and Eskom promised that its air-quality commitments to its financing partners, including the World Bank, would be honoured.

Creecy told Yelland that, as the regulator, she required a formal communication from Eskom on the matter before she could comment.

She further noted that, unless a coal-fired power station was to be decommissioned before 2030, it would require FGD or some other form of sulphur dioxide emissions control technology to comply with the 500 mg/Nm3 for stations built after 2010, or 1 000 mg/Nm3 for those built prior to that date.

“I understand that the World Bank may be a lender for the Medupi project, and I also understand that the bank may have certain requirements that Eskom may be required to meet. But as the regulator of emissions, no-one has spoken to us at a formal level about either dispensing with the FGD plant at Medupi, nor of not complying with the sulphur dioxide emissions limit of 500 mg/Nm3.”

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 stockyard 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.