By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom announced it successfully reintegrated Medupi’s unit 4 into the national grid late on Sunday evening.
The return of the unit to service strengthens South Africa’s energy security and enhances the stability of electricity supply. With the return of Unit 4, all six units at Medupi are operational and will contribute a combined capacity of 4 800 MW to the national grid, once the unit reaches full output in the coming weeks.
Eskom said in a statement that unit 4 will add 800MW to the grid within a few weeks and is part of its “strategic objective to deliver 2.5GW of generation capacity” and put to load shedding behind it once and for all.
“This milestone strengthens South Africa’s energy security and enhances the stability of electricity supply. The unit’s return follows extensive repairs, completed eight months ahead of the original schedule, made possible by the innovative use of a refurbished ‘generator stator’, an alternative to waiting for a brand-new component,” Eskom said.
The unit had been out of service since 8 August 2021 after sustaining significant damage in an explosion.
“To avoid the costly delays associated with the lengthy delivery time of a new generator stator, Eskom sourced a used stator from the Netherlands as an interim solution, enabling the early return to service of Medupi unit 4.
“With the return of unit 4, all six units at Medupi are now operational and will contribute a combined capacity of 4.8GW to the national grid once the unit reaches full output in the coming weeks,” it said.
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said: “This achievement moves us closer to consistently overcoming load shedding, which is now largely behind us…”
The station is designed to recycle and reuse all water involved in the power generation process on site. It is also equipped with low nitrogen oxide (NOₓ) burners to minimise NOₓ emissions.
Additionally, Medupi has been designed to accommodate the future installation of flue gas desulphurisation technology, which will cut sulphur dioxide emissions by more than 90%, and thereby further enhance its enviromental performance.