@Dave
Much has been written about the cost and time overruns at Eskom’s flagship new-build mega-projects – the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power stations in South Africa. This article focuses on the boiler plant design defects and the status of rectification work currently in progress.
www.dailymaverick.co.za
Reading through to the link to Engineering News in the Maverick article shows that they are discussing average energy
availability, not output. The generator is still capable of 800MW but it breaks down so often that it’s availability is below 70%, not that it’s outputting only 70% of capacity.
State-owned electricity producer Eskom has offered a sobering update on the difficulties it is having at its Medupi and Kusile coal projects, which are not only years behind schedule and significantly over budget, but are now also beset with technical defects that are resulting in a serious...
www.engineeringnews.co.za
Dr
Titus Mathe reported that the three Medupi units and the one Kusile unit currently in commercial operation had, for the
financial year to date, experienced a total of 84 unit trips. Medupi unit trips rose from 20 during the 2018
financial year to 66 in the 2019
financial year, which runs to March 31.
He also revealed that the average
energy availability factor (EAF) for the Medupi units was below 70% between April and December last year, with Unit 6, which was the first unit to enter into commercial operation in 2015, having been shut for
repairs for three months from the start of September to the end of November.
The immediate target is to return to an EAF of 70%, which is well below the 92% ‘use requirement specification’ target set for the units.
