In June the first milestone in creating the Medupi power station in South Africa was reached when Hitachi Power Europe (through its subsidiary Hitachi Power Africa) and the client Eskom celebrated completion of a successful hydrostatic pressure test of the first 800 MW unit for the giant power plant and its sister unit at Kusile. The significance of the test is that the utility steam generator – the first in a series of six identical supercritical units at the site - has proved its reliability.
Following the successful test the boiler will be insulated to improve efficiency. Further components will be installed and commissioned over the coming months, including the coal mills, electric motors, control equipment and the ash removal system. When complete, the six units of the Medupi plant, the world's largest dry-cooled coal fired power station, will supply 4800 MW into the grid. The scope of work of HPE and HPA for the South African electricity utility Eskom includes the design, supply, erection and commissioning of in total 12 boilers with 800 MW capacity each for the two power stations Medupi and Kusile.
The efficiency of the new units will be considerably higher than that of Eskom’s existing fleet. This is achieved, says Hitachi, by the supercritical steam parameters and the use of the latest combustion technology. Therefore emissions as well as operating costs can be reduced significantly.
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