Unit 5 of Eskom’s Medupi Power Station Project has achieved commercial operation status, the power parastatal announced yesterday.
Commercial operation status ensures technical compliance with statutory safety and legal requirements and involves the contractual handover of the unit from the primary contractors into the Eskom Generation fleet.
Eskom said that all performance guarantees had been put into effect after control, performance and reliability tests had been performed on the unit – located in Lephalale, Limpopo – placing it way ahead of the scheduled deadline of March 2018 and adding 800 MW (megawatts) to the national grid.
Medupi is part of the organisations’ new build programme which includes the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme and the Kusile Power Station. The programme intends to increase the country’s energy generating capacity by 17 384 GW (gigawatts) by 2019/20.
