KUSILE power station’s Unit 1 has been connected to the national grid for the first time this year, power utility Eskom said. The unit adds an extra 800 megawatts (MW) to further stabilise the power system to support South Africa’s economic growth and the roll-out of the electrification programme.

The connection of Unit 1 of Kusile comes at a time when Eskom has incrementally been building excess capacity to ensure security of power supply.

“Eskom has focused on lessons learnt from its past history of new build projects and this has led to this early synchronisation. Our build programme is now delivering ahead of our re-baseline schedule, our operations have stabilised and as a result, we are in a position of surplus capacity,” said acting group chief executive Matshela Koko.

Kusile is a green-fields coal-fired power plant which is located near the existing Kendal Power Station in the Nkangala District of Mpumalanga. It will comprise six units, each rated at an 800MW installed capacity with total capacity of 4 800MW.

Construction at the power plant commenced in 2008, and the power station is planned to be fully installed by 2022.