Kusile Power Station’s final unit added power to the grid on Sunday at 16:45.
As winter approaches, Eskom has got a major boost, with Kusile Power Station’s final generation unit adding 800MW to the electricity grid for the first time.
The parastatal announced that Kusile Power Station’s Unit 6 was brought online at 4:45pm on Sunday.
Testing
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the unit will undergo further testing over the next six months before it is officially integrated into the grid and formally part of the utility’s generation fleet.
Mokwena said the achievement marks a crucial step towards Eskom’s objective of adding 2 500MW of new capacity to the grid by March 2025.
“Kusile Power Station will contribute a total of 4 800MW to the national grid once all units are fully operational, making it South Africa’s largest infrastructure project. Its sister project, Medupi, will see its Unit 4 return 800MW by the end of April 2025 from an extended outage following a generator stator failure and the completion of the project.”
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Grid constrained
Eskom Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo, said the parastatal is at a critical point in returning megawatts to the grid as it is currently in a “constrained state.”
“As we celebrate this progress, our focus is now on ensuring that Unit 6 achieves commercial operation in the second half of 2025, further strengthening South Africa’s energy security.”
The boost in generation capacity comes after the recent bouts of load shedding.
Eskom making progress
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said Kusile Unit 6’s addition shows that Eskom is making progress in “stabilising and strengthening” South Africa’s electricity supply.
“We reiterate our commitment to ensuring that South Africa is in no way returning to the levels of load shedding that we experienced in 2023, and our focus remains on delivering a more reliable, resilient, and sustainable power system for the country.”
Kusile is the first power station in South Africa and Africa to implement Wet Flue Gas Desulphurisation (WFGD) technology, ensuring compliance with air quality standards and aligning with global best practices to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.
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