Eskom has announced that the last generation unit at Medupi power station is finally operational.
Eskom said this ‘milestone marks the completion of all building activities on the 4,764MW project’.
Last year, Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan told Fin24 that South Africans were paying four times more for electricity than they did a decade ago and he blamed this on fraud as well as cost overruns at the Medupi and Kusile power stations.
‘It’s because of tariff increases, and that’s to pay for Medupi and Kusile overruns, (and) all the stealing that happened. It’s for all the extra you’re paying for coal and maintenance and to original equipment manufacturers, et cetera. And it’s the ordinary citizen and the economy that’s paying the cost,’ said Gordhan.
The construction of Medupi began in 2007 and was initially budgeted to cost R80 billion. By 2019, the estimated cost had shot up to R234 billion.
The first unit at Medupi became operational in August 2015.
Said Bheki Nxumalo, group executive for Eskom’s capital division: ‘This is an investment that will serve generations of the people of South Africa and power the economy for at least the next half-century.
‘What remains for the Medupi project is the last part of implementing the agreed technical solutions related to the boiler-design defects on the balance of plant. Once these repairs are completed during the next 24 months, Medupi will reliably deliver power to the national grid at full capacity, helping increase energy security for the country.”
[Image: Caracal Rooikat, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42718633]