Eskom has synchronised the last unit at Ingula power station in KwaZulu-Natal on 16 June ahead of the scheduled deadline of January 2017. This will add 333 megawatts to the national grid. Synchronisation is the process where, after construction and commissioning, the unit is connected to the electricity grid for the first time. After synchronisation, further optimisation and testing takes place to ensure that the unit is safe and reliable. The unit is then declared commercial and handed over to the generation division for operation.
The power utility’s Group Chief Executive, Brian Molefe, dedicated Unit 1 to the memory of Hector Peterson and the class of 1976. “We are proud to have synchronised all four units at Ingula ahead of schedule. We look forward to Ingula rapidly nearing commercial completion and meeting the 2017 deadline, thereby enhancing the security of Eskom’s electricity supply to power South Africa into the future,” said Molefe.
Once completed in the next five years, Eskom’s capacity expansion programme, which is the largest in the company’s history, will increase generation capacity by 1,717,384 MW, transmission lines by 9,756 km and substation capacity by 42,470 megavolt amps.
