“Medupi Unit 6 was successfully synchronised to the national power grid on 2 March 2015 and is currently being progressively tested and optimised to enable it to join the Eskom generation fleet,” said the utility in an update.
Medupi consists of six units of 800 MW each, which is 12% of Eskom’s total installed capacity.
Eskom said making every effort to ensure that completion of the remaining five units is not hampered by technical or labour issues.
Participants in the latest illegal industrial action numbered 1,700, while the total complement for the construction project is around 14,000.
“The synchronisation process will take time to ensure that the power it delivers is stable, consistent and reliable and that the unit is safe to operate and will perform as designed for the next 50 years.
“From its first synchronisation, the unit has been delivering 400 MW but because of the testing and combustion optimisation, this power is delivered intermittently and this will continue until full power (800 MW) is reached around end-May 2015.”
“Eskom will meet with unions to discuss last week’s incident as Eskom has invested a significant sum of time and resources in the partnership agreement (PA) to address the plight of workers and achieve peace and stability on the Medupi and Kusile projects.”
