Although consumers hardly noticed, South Africa state-owned power company Eskom scored a psychological victory Oct. 30, as Unit 2 reached “commercial operational status” having finally passed all technical hurdles— the unit has actually been producing power for almost three years— and is now under control of the company, and not the construction engineers.
As planned, the Kusile power plant will ultimately be a six-unit coal-fired power plant, capable of providing a total, “nameplate” capacity of 4,800MW in badly-needed power for the nation. However, unlike its “cousin,” the similar sized six-unit 4,800MW Medupi plant, Kusile has been plagued with setbacks almost from day one. On top of the expected hysteria from Greenpeace corner, the plant has been hit with labor stoppages rising to the level of violence, as well as significant technical blunders which would have some seeing conspiracy. Currently, the Kusile plant has only two of its six, 600MW units fully functioning, while Medupi (although recently beset with its own, primarily maintenance-related problems) at least has all six units completed.
Kusile’s problems have stretched out so that now even its coal supply is threatened, with the New Largo coal mine having been sold without a contract to supply the plant, and new owners Seriti Resources now balking at a deal, Eskom revealed in a recent report.
