By Akanimo Sampson
Eskom, South Africa’s power utility company says Unit 3 of the Kusile Power Station has achieved commercial operation status.
This brings to three the number of generation units that have achieved commercial status at the project, generating a maximum of 2400MW to support the South African power grid.
Bringing the 800MW unit to commercial status means construction activity has come to an end on half of the eMalahleni, Mpumalanga project.
The achievement of this milestone follows two years of rigorous testing and optimisation since the unit was first synchronised into the national grid in April 2019.
This significant milestone marks the contractual handover of the unit from the principal contractors under the Group Capital Build project unit to the Generation division.
Eskom’s Group Executive for Capital Projects, Bheki Nxumalo said that bringing this unit to commercial operation is a major milestone for the company.
He pointed out that the employees involved in the project were working hard to ensure Eskom fulfils its promise of bringing stability to the power system.
The construction, testing and optimisation activities on the remaining three units, some of which are currently providing intermittent power to support the grid, are progressing well.
Commercial Operation status is conferred on generation units that have met the requirements for full technical, statutory, safety and legal compliance.
Kusile is the first power station in South Africa and Africa to use wet flue gas desulphurisation (WFGD) technology.
WFGD is the current state-of-the-art technology used to remove oxides of sulphur (SOx), for example, sulphur dioxide (SO2), from the exhaust flue gas in power plants that burn coal or oil.
Eskom is fitting WFGD to the Kusile plant as an atmospheric emission abatement technology, inline with current international practice, to ensure compliance with air quality standards and its commitments to some of the founders of the project.
