Deputy President David Mabuza has confirmed that Eskom’s Medupi Power Station in Limpopo will be fully operational by end of this year. According to DP Mabuza, plans are afoot to make sure that there is enough electricity in the country.
“According to the timeline that we have set ourselves as government, Eskom has set for itself, we’ve tried to push them hard. We are confident that we will be done with the Medupi Power Station by end of this year. We will be fixing some of the technical mistakes, as we go on until we get the plant fully operational, but yes we are going to commercialise it,” he said.
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Medupi Power Station
The Medupi power plant, is located in Lephalale, Limpopo. It is a Greenfield coal-fired power plant comprising six units rated in total at 4764MW installed capacity. Upon completion, Medupi Power Station is set to be the largest dry-cooled power station in the world. The boiler and turbine contracts for Medupi are the largest contracts that Eskom has ever signed in its 90-year history.
Originally conceived as Project Alpha, with only three units planned to total 2400MW but the design was changed at a late stage and doubled in size. The boilers were envisaged to be supercritical in type, which would make them 38% more effective than other Eskom power stations.