Kusile has been a significant failure as it has been responsible for several stages of load-shedding over the years and has come at a substantial cost to the country, reported Mybroadband.
This is the view of energy analyst Chris Yelland. Kusile’s Unit 5 was only synchronised to the country’s grid for the first time on 31 December 2023.
Eskom announced that the unit would contribute an additional 800MW to the country’s power system.
It will supply electricity intermittently during the testing and optimisation phase over the next six months, before becoming commercially operational.
Yelland said this unit’s synchronisation comes only after an investment of R233 billion and 15 years of construction.
Plans to construct Kusile started in 2005. Construction started in August 2008, and was expected to take six years to complete and to cost R81 billion.
Corruption, mismanagement, and worker unrest caused numerous delays and cost overruns.
Fifteen years after construction started, only four of its units are in commercial service.
The cost of the project ballooned to R233.4 billion.
Yelland said that while Unit 5 is finally synchronised to the grid, it is still not in commercial operation. Unit 6 is also still not synchronised to the grid.
‘As such, Kusile has been responsible for several stages of load-shedding for years, at a truly massive cost to the economy. In short, Kusile has been a huge failure for South Africa.’
Energy analystHilton Trollip said the unit represents less than 2% of the total Eskom fleet.
Currently, because of planned and unplanned outages, just under 50% of Eskom units are offline.
Kusile Unit 5 is the first substantial new capacity to be added to the grid in two years.