Eskom fixes Medupi plant after 75-day outage
Updated | By Nokukhanya N Mntambo
Eskom has completed repairs to Unit 3 of the Medupi power station after the unit was shut earlier this year to address defects relating to the boiler.
The power utility announced on Monday that Medupi’s Unit 3 had reached its full generation capacity of 793 MW.
Eskom spent the better part of the national lockdown completing repairs to the power station, saying that contractors and staff worked "tirelessly" to execute the outage as planned.
“Eskom commends its guardians and contractors, who worked tirelessly during the Covid-19 nationwide lockdown to execute the outage as planned,” says Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha.
In June 2019, Eskom announced that Unit 3 at its Medupi Power Station Project in Lephalale, Limpopo, had attained commercial operation status and had been fully synchronised to the national grid.
But the multi-million-rand power station was riddled with defects, which often contributed to the country’s ongoing bouts of load shedding.
Concern over spike in Covid-19 at Limpopo mines
Limpopo which is one of the least affected provinces in the country with only 54 confirmed cases of Covid-19. However, the number is expected to increase significantly with the economy moved down to Level four of restrictions.
“The unit is currently undergoing optimisation and performance testing prior to conducting the boiler performance verification tests, which require inspections and equipment tests to be conducted after 2,500 hours of operation in order to verify the success of the modifications,” Mantshantsha adds.
Last week Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter vowed to ensure minimal load shedding during the country’s winter season.
The country has been without load shedding since the start of March.
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