Medupi is up and running!

Eskom Medupi’s last unit achieves commercial operation, marking completion of
the project
Monday, 02 August 2021: Eskom is pleased to announce that on Saturday Unit 1, the
last of six generation units of the Medupi Power Station Project in Lephalale, attained
commercial operation status and was thus handed over to the Generation division. This
milestone marks the completion of all building activities on the 4 764MW project, which
commenced in May 2007. The planned operational life of the station is 50 years.
Eskom applauds Team Medupi, support teams and its execution partners for working
tirelessly to ensure the unit is handed-over for commercial operation as planned by the
end of July.
“Unit 1 commercial operation is a historic milestone as it signifies the completion of
construction for Medupi Power Station,” said Bheki Nxumalo, Group Executive for Eskom’s
Group Capital Division. “This is an investment that will serve generations of the people of
South Africa and power the economy for at least the next half-century.”
The commercial operation status means technical compliance to statutory, safety and
legal requirements have all been met. The unit was officially declared commercial after the
completion of the unit optimisation, control demonstration, as well as the 72-hour and the
30-day reliability run, which have put all performance guarantees to effect. Unit 1 was first
synchronised to the national grid on 27 August 2019 and reached the full load of 794MW
on 05 December 2019. During this testing and optimisation phase, Unit 1 contributed
intermittent power to the country’s electricity supply.
It was on 23 August 2015 when the first unit, Unit 6, attained commercial operation status.
Over the following six years four other units were built and brought to commercial status,
providing electricity to the national grid.
The Medupi Power Station uses direct dry-cooling systems due to the water scarcity in the
Lephalale area, and is the fourth largest coal-fired plant and the largest dry-cooled power
station in the world. The power plant incorporates super critical technology, which is able
to operate at higher temperatures than Eskom’s earlier generation of boilers and turbines.
Importantly, the technology enables the power plant to operate with greater efficiency,
resulting in better use of natural resources such as water and coal, and will have improved
environmental performance.