JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, — GE (www.GE.com) General Electric Steam Power Systems received a Final Acceptance Certificate from Eskom for the successful testing and transitioning of Medupi Power Station Unit 4. GE’s commitment to work with the customer will bring the country’s government closer to realizing its energy supply goals. Upon completion, the power station will produce a total of 4800MW and will be sufficient to meet the electricity needs of 3.5 million households in the country.
This is a major milestone for GE and our customer Eskom as Unit 4 will be the third unit out of six units to be transferred to commercial operation marking the half way point of completing the project. Once completed in 2020, Medupi will be the fourth-largest coal-fired power plant in the world and the largest in Africa. GE’s scope includes 6 full EPC turbine islands, air cooled Condensers and overall project & construction management.
“Our team has been working with Eskom on the Medupi Power Plant since 2007 and our collaboration has achieved significant progress with more than just power supply in South Africa. We have invested over 1 billion rands to empower local businesses and trained over 300 students on technical and engineering skills” says Douglas Beigley Project Director, Medupi Power station.
Enterprise and Supplier development is a critical pillar of the country’s Broad Based Economic Empowerment and it speaks to the true empowerment of sustainable business in South Africa. This investment solidifies GE’s long-term commitment to the country’s national development plan. Medupi is a shining example of how Africa’s power generation needs can be solved through successful public private sector collaboration.
Our collaboration with Eskom goes beyond the building, engineering and construction of the Medupi plant. GE’s total plant management solutions portfolio demonstrates our strength as a single service provider that understands the full plant-as-a-system impact for installation, maintenance, repair and upgrade activities and our excellent services capabilities enables us to optimize the performance and long-term value of the steam power plant to ensure high efficiency for the units throughout the plant’s life cycle.