Work to fix Eskom’s ‘baby’ scheduled to start in October

Three units at Eskom’s Kusile Power Station, which is currently performing exceptionally well, will be taken offline one after the other from October to install the permanent solution following damage to their chimneys.

The damage deprived electricity users of their combined generation capacity of 2 400 megawatts for most of last year.

The four units currently in commercial operation at Kusile – the youngest baby in Eskom’s generation fleet – are currently operating at an availability factor above 90% and have been taken off the list of six power stations earmarked for special attention by the power utility.

Good performance is being achieved with a temporary solution in place at units 1, 2 and 3, which bypasses the flue-gas desulphurisation units (FGD). This cost Eskom R600 million. Kusile is the first Eskom coalfired power station fitted with these units, which limit toxic emissions.

Kusile should have been completed 10 years ago. The budget has doubled from R80 billion to R161 billion, R150 billion of which Eskom had spent by 31 March last year.

The power utility says unit 5 will be in commercial use by the end of June and unit 6 by April next year.

International experts VGBe, appointed by National Treasury to do a technical assessment of Eskom’s generation fleet, were clear that the damage to the chimneys had resulted from Eskom deviating from proper operational and maintenance practices for the FGDs.

Unless this is changed and proper skills brought in, the situation may repeat itself and the plant may deteriorate further, which is completely unnecessary. It is unclear whether anybody has been held accountable at Eskom for this incident, which occurred in October 2022.

Eskom’s response to questions in this regard was merely