Kusile power station’s Unit 4 returns to service with 800MW
Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the return to service of Unit 4 at Kusile power station will add 800 MW to capacity.
Kusile Power Station’s Unit 4 has returned to service bringing back 800 megawatts, which was taken off during the unit’s 20-day planned maintenance.
This was revealed by Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa on Sunday, 17 September during a briefing on the implementation of the country’s Energy Action Plan.
KUSILE POWER STATION’S UNIT 4 RETURNS TO SERVICE
During the briefing, Ramokgopa revealed that the unit came back online on Sunday morning, and will add 800 megawatts to the capacity available and removes 800 megawatts from the planned maintenance of Eskom.
Units 1, 2 and 3 of the power station located in Mpumalanga were put offline due to a flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) mechanism that was damaged in October 2022. This affected stacks at the units.
Ramokgopa said that the three units are expected to come online between October and the end of November 2023.
“We’ve been able to shed a month on the return of unit 3 and the expectation is that we should be able to return this unit by 14 October. The same is applicable for unit 1. We should be able to get it on 30 October.
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On progress made on unit 2, Ramokgopa said the team initially was of the view that the unit would return on 24 December. However, this has been revised to 30 November 2023.
LOAD SHEDDING FOR THE WEEK
Meanwhile, Eskom has announced that it will be implementing Stage 2 and 4 load shedding alternatively until further notice.
The power utility said Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented from 16:00 on Monday until 05:00 on Tuesday, followed by Stage 2 loadshedding from 05:00 until 16:00.