Cape Town – Eskom announced on Wednesday that a generation unit at its Kusile Power Station had been transferred to its generation division to enter its commercial operation.
It said Unit 4 at the power station was handed over to be formally part of the Eskom fleet on Tuesday.
According to Eskom this is a milestone in its efforts to stabilise the power system in the country.
The new generation unit will be adding a much-needed 800MW to the power system.
“This milestone means the construction of four out of the six generation units have now been completed at the Kusile Power Station project. The Kusile project team and Eskom are working tirelessly to complete the rest of the project without any further delays as the country needs every megawatt of power it can get,” said Bheki Nxumalo, Eskom’s group executive for Capital Projects.
The unit is said to have undergone a series of tests while intermittently supplying electricity over the past five months
Since the unit’s synchronisation in December, Eskom said the unit had performed to expectations, intermittently sending up to 720MW and contributing to reducing load shedding.
At completion, the power station will consist of six units which will produce 4 800MW.
Units 5 and 6 will continue to progress according to plan with construction and commissioning activities.
The Kusile Power Station is South Africa’s largest construction project and will be the world’s fourth-largest coal plant on completion.
IOL