Johnathan Paoli
The Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has announced the return to service of Unit 1 of the Kusile power station, a month and a half ahead of schedule, a move that will go a long way in reducing load shedding.
This follows the return to service of Unit 3 last month, with the two running units expected to deliver a combined 1600MW, Ramokgopa said at Monday’s media briefing.
Kusile’s Unit 1 which had been out of commission since August last year, following safety concerns with the structural integrity of the stack, returns ahead of its planned return date, and continues to strengthen the stability of generation performance.
Ramokgopa said that Kusile Unit 2 is expected to return to service next month, similarly ahead of schedule, and that the experimental unit 5 will commence preliminary testing operation in December.
The three Kusile units became inoperable last year, after a slurry build-up in the Unit 1 flue led to its collapse, in the process, damaging the other two flues in the west chimney they share.
“This signifies that Eskom is on the right path to reducing and ultimately ending loadshedding,” Ramokgopa said.
In addition, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the important contribution of the Kusile units to stemming the load shedding tide within the country, during closing remarks of the ANC’s NEC meeting this weekend.
“Our country has turned a definite corner as far as load shedding is concerned, and levels and frequency of load shedding is expected to improve during the fourth quarter. This is due to the return of Kusile units; embedded generation by private households and businesses; and demand management which will be adding much needed capacity to the grid,” President Ramaphosa said.
Eskom has successfully applied for an exemption from emissions limitations to expedite the repair using a temporary stack while the flue-gas desulphuration structure is repaired, and the units with the temporary stacks are expected to run until the end of March next year.
INSIDE POLITICS
