“Eskom is pleased to announce that first power was produced out of Medupi’s Unit 6 today at 11:03am, making it the first of Medupi power station’s six units to be synchronised,” said the utility on Monday.
Synchronisation, or first power, is the process whereby the generator in the unit is electrically connected to the national power grid, so that its power is perfectly aligned with all other generators to generate and deliver electricity into the national power grid.
Tshediso Matona, Eskom’s chief executive said: “We celebrate with Team Medupi. The electricity flowing into the grid marks a new beginning. Within the next three months, South Africa will see Medupi unit 6’s full potential of 794 MW being fed into the national grid.”
A power station manager has been appointed and six years has been spent training a core set of 350 people who will operate the cutting-edge technology that makes this power station unique in the world.
“While Unit 6 is the first of Medupi’s six units, all required auxiliary services for the entire power station are ready to ensure that Medupi’s total output of 4,764 MW is fully synchronised to the South African power grid,” said Matona.
