Medupi power station project, South Africa – update

13th August 2021

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

     

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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
At the peak of its construction, the project employed more than 18 000 people on building activities and another 2 000 supporting employees on site.

Further, more than 4 600 artisans, technicians, engineers and managers have been formally trained by Eskom’s contractors.

Capital Expenditure
The capital cost of the project is R122-billion so far, and Eskom expects to spend in total under R135-billion on completion of balance of plant.

Planned Start /End Date
All building activities on the power station were completed in August 2021, after more than a decade under construction. The project started construction in 2007.

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. It reached commercial operation in August 2021.

Latest Developments
Eskom confirmed on August 9 that an explosion at the Medupi power station's Unit 4 generator had resulted in extensive damage to the generator.

Unit 4 had been on a short-term outage since August 6 and the explosion occurred during the displacement of hydrogen with carbon dioxide and air, respectively, for the purposes of finding an external leak.

Following a preliminary investigation, it appears that, while performing this activity, air was introduced into the generator at a point where hydrogen was still present in the generator at sufficient quantities to create an explosive mixture, which ignited and resulted in the explosion. It also appears that there was a deviation from the procedure for conducting this activity.

No injuries were sustained, but Eskom has placed the employees who were responsible for managing and executing this work under precautionary suspension, pending the conclusion of a major event investigation.

Eskom announced on July 31 that Unit 1, the last of six generation units of the Medupi power station, had attained commercial operation status and had been handed over to the Generation division, after 14 years under construction; however, it conceded that some work still needed to be done to address boiler design defects on some units. It expected work to be completed within the next 24 months.

The planned FGD technology at Medupi has also not been installed.

Eskom planned to install FGD technology at Medupi by June 2025, as part of a legal covenant with the World Bank, which loaned the South African utility $3.75-billion in 2010 largely for the purposes of building the power station.

The technology would be used to lower the coal-fired power plant’s sulphur dioxide emissions in line with South Africa’s tightening minimum emissions standards.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
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.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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