Eskom+on+track+to+boost+power+output,+Louise+Flanagan,+Star


=Eskom on track to boost power output =


 * Louise Flanagan, The Star, 13 February 2008**

The old power stations which are being resurrected are due to add another 800 Mega-watt generating capacity to Eskom by the middle of this year.

Eskom's New Build News update, released yesterday, outlines the progress on its building programme, with the old resurrected stations providing the initial extra capacity and nuclear power plants a key long-term focus.

Camden power station is nearly finished demothballing and its last two units are due on line by the middle of this year adding 400Mw.

Grootvlei, also being unmothballed, will have two units on line by April, adding 400Mw, while Komati should have its first unit on line by the third quarter of this year, adding about 100Mw. All three are in Mpumalanga.

The huge Medupi coal-fired power station in Limpopo will start being commissioned in 2012 and be finished in 2015. It will eventually deliver 4 788Mw.

Rain has delayed some work on Medupi.

The pumped storage station Ingula, near Ladysmith, is on schedule to deliver 1 332Mw by mid-2013. Work has started on the extensions to the open-cycle gas turbine power stations at Ankerlig, north of Cape Town, and Gourikwa, west of Mossel Bay. This will add 1 050Mw by the end of next year.

Eskom intends more than doubling its generation capacity to 80 000Mw by 2025. This includes up to 20 000Mw from nuclear power stations. The first of these is due to be about twice as big as Koeberg, which has a capacity of 1 800Mw. "The first of the proposed nuclear power plants is expected to have a capacity of about 3 500Mw, although the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will be done for a higher capacity to ensure conservatism," Eskom said.

EIAs are being conducted on the five previously-identified sites: Brazil near Kleinzee, Duynefontein near Koeberg, Bantamsklip near Gansbaai, all in the Western Cape; Schulpfontein near Hondeklipbaai in the Northern Cape; and Thyspunt near Oyster Bay in the Eastern Cape.

Public workshops at these sites start this month. Westinghouse in the US and Areva in France are bidding to build the nuclear stations and licensing is due to start this year.

The unnamed Project Lima, a pumped storage scheme in Mpumalanga, is due for Eskom board approval in March and should add 1 500Mw by 2013, while work on the unnamed coal-fired Project Bravo is due to start in May. Bravo will start delivering some of its 4 800Mw in 2012.

Eskom said it aimed to maintain financial stability - and has "embarked on an exercise to determine the financial stability of the organisation" - while delivering the much-needed capacity.

It noted recent concerns over its credit ratings and said funds would come from "price increases, efficiencies, shareholder support, and alternative credit maintenance solutions".


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4252553**

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