Zuma says new South African coal plant boosting infrastructure, ‘but challenges remain’

However, Zuma said electricity produced by the first of six generating units at the new Medupi coal-fired plant, together with around 1,800 megawatts (MW) supplied by independent power producers, “will further strengthen the country’s electricity supply and stimulate our economy”.

In addition, Zuma said the completion of unit six at Medupi was “a living example of the pervasive impact and potential of our infrastructure projects”.  

South African companies were “prioritised for procurement” for the construction of Medupi and two other power plant projects, which are at various stages of completion, and won 62% of the 75 billion rand (ZAR) ($5.6bn) of related new-build contracts, Zuma said.

‘Spin-off’ infrastructure projects from Medupi included investments “in excess of ZAR 2.3bn in infrastructure as well as socio-economic development initiatives”, Zuma said.

South Africa’s national utility Eskom said the two other power plants it is constructing are the coal-fired Kusile in Mpumalanga and the Ingula pumped storage hydropower project in KwaZulu Natal.

Eskom said Medupi unit six has been producing electricity intermittently since it was first synchronised to the national grid last March. When all six Medupi units are in operation, the green-field site plant will have a combined installed generating capacity of 4,764 MW.

Once completed, Medupi “will be the fourth largest coal-fired plant and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world”, Eskom said. The planned operational lifetime of the plant is 50 years.

Eskom’s acting chief executive officer Brian Molefe said: "The commercial operation of unit six of the Medupi power station is a critical milestone in our effort to build new generating capacity to meet South Africa’s rising electricity demand. Our capacity expansion programme, which is the largest in our history, will increase our generation capacity by 17,384 MW, transmission lines by 9,756 kilometres and substation capacity by 42,470 MVA (mega volt amp) once completed in the next five years.”

Molefe said that since its inception in 2005, the utility’s capacity expansion programme has added 6,237 MW of generating capacity, together with an additional 5,816 km of transmission lines and 29,655 MVA of substation capacity.

Up to 95% of South Africa’s electricity is currently generated by coal-fired power stations and the country is among the world’s top 25 producers of greenhouse gases, according to government figures.

Last June, South Africa’s energy minister announced plans to step up the procurement process for new gas-fired plants to revitalise the country’s struggling energy sector amid severe power shortages.

Tina Joemat-Pettersson told South Africa’s National Assembly (17-page / 300 KB PDF) that the “lack of timely coordination of our planning, alignment and implementation of our country’s energy programmes has created serious challenges for us”.

A study released last month indicated that renewable energy from South Africa’s first wind and solar plants generated ZAR 4bn ($309m) more for the country during the first six months of 2015 than they cost.