Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, the Minister in the Presidency in charge of Electricity, has pledged to restart South Africa’s largest power plant sooner than projected in order to halt load shedding.
Ramokgopa stated on Friday that Eskom was adopting interventions to expedite repairs to Unit 4 at the Medupi power facility. In August 2021, the unit was brought offline for repairs after an explosion caused substantial damage during a short-term maintenance outage.
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It was originally scheduled to reopen in August 2024, adding approximately 2 000MW of producing capacity to the system.
Due to generator capacity limits, Eskom is currently conducting the worst round of power outages, alternating between Stage 4 and Stage 6 load shedding on a daily basis.
Medupi will be the world’s fourth largest coal power station when completely operational, with each of its six units producing 720MW and mitigating four levels of load shedding.
Bheki Nxumalo, Eskom’s group executive for generation, Ramokgopa said, had hit the ground running in bringing some of the utility’s units back up as soon as possible, “We are working very closely to return Unit 4 in Medupi that was taken off-line in August 2021,” he said.
“Bheki there, working with the competent team at Medupi, has found an accelerated path to get that unit up and running, and with those initiatives, we feel that we should be getting back that unit much earlier than expected,” he added.
On Friday, Ramokgopa briefed the media on the National Energy Action Plan and the National Energy Crisis Committee’s accomplishments. He also stated that the repairs on the three units at Kusile will be done by December since an expedited option had been examined.
Eskom predicted in February that it would take at least a year to repair the Unit 1 flue duct (chimney) after it collapsed in October last year owing to slurry buildup. Because the ducts for all three units were welded together, the collapse at Unit 1 subsequently damaged Units 2 and 3.
However, in March, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment Barbara Creecy granted Eskom a waiver from some conditions in connection with its proposal to install temporary stacks at Kusile.
According to Ramokgopa, the accelerated return of Kusile units 1, 2, and 3 would bring more than 2 100 W to the grid, relieving pressure on the power system and lowering load shedding by nearly two stages.
He said, “We are also making progress in returning the three units at Kusile. As you know, the time-lines that Eskom has shared with us is that those three units that were discontinued as a result of the compromised structural integrity of the chimney should be back by December this year, and that is 2100MW.”
Meanwhile, Eskom warned that the winter season would be “very difficult” over the next 150 days, with energy demand likely to rise to between 32 000MW and 37 000MW, but measures were already in place.
Nxumalo stated that Eskom’s generation recovery strategy, which was approved by the board, aimed at increasing the Energy Availability Factor from 56% at the end of the 2023 fiscal year to 60% by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
However, Nxumalo stated that this would be difficult due to outages at Kusile and Unit 1 at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, which was brought offline late last year for maintenance and steam generator replacement to extend its lifespan by another 20 years.
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“It’s going to be a very difficult and tough winter with all those units at Kusile and Koeberg (Nuclear Station) off. But we will come back with comprehensive plans once we have gone through the internal process,” Nxumalo said.
Eskom’s System Operator has begun work on expanding South Africa’s load-shedding code of practise beyond Stage 8. The new code of practice, which instructs towns on how to share electricity load, will be submitted to South Africa’s energy regulator for approval in the coming days.
