Unit 4 of Kusile Power Station enters commercial operation
South Africa: Eskom has announced that Unit 4 of the Kusile Power Station Project is now formally part of the Eskom commercial fleet.
Image source: ESI Africa
South Africa: Eskom has announced that Unit 4 of the Kusile Power Station Project is now formally part of the Eskom commercial fleet.
This handover marks another milestone in Eskom’s efforts to stabilise the power system in that it has formally added a much-needed 800 MW to the country’s power system. The unit was connected to the national grid for the first time on 23 December 2021.
“This milestone means the construction of four out of the six generation units has 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, the Eskom Group Executive for Capital Projects.
The unit has undergone a series of tests while intermittently supplying electricity over the past five months. Since synchronisation in December 2021, the unit has performed to expectation, intermittently sending up to 720 MW and contributing to reducing the implementation of loadshedding.
At completion, the station will consist of six units and will produce a maximum of 4,800 MW. Construction and commissioning activities on the remaining Kusile Units 5 and 6 continue to progress according to plan. Situated near eMalahleni in Mpumalanga, Kusile is South Africa’s largest construction project and will be the world’s fourth-largest coal plant at completion.
Eskom is fitting wet flue gas desulphurisation (WFGD) to the Kusile plant as an atmospheric emission abatement technology, in line with current international practise, to ensure compliance with air quality standards, making it more environmentally friendly.
Kusile is the first power station in South Africa and Africa to use WFGD technology. WFGD is the state-of-the-art technology used to remove oxides of sulphur (SOx), for example, sulphur dioxide (SO2), in the emissions of power plants that burn coal or oil.
Source: ESI Africa