Johannesburg - Hitachi Power Africa has put its neck on the chopping block, making a firm commitment that it would not delay the commissioning of Medupi again even though it has uncovered more welding defects at the power station.
The company said there was a maximum of 24 welds that had failed the quality test.
“We double-checked some welds and although there is no immediate problem, the design life span may not be fully reached. While there is extra time available the separators will be replaced with another set,” the company said.
On Thursday, Hitachi Power Africa said the amount of work needed to rectify these weld defects was “of a manageable size” and would not cause a delay or increase the costs of building Medupi.
“Work is already in progress and will be resolved well within the new time frame stipulated by the client,” the company said on Friday.
It said it would “deal” with the responsible sub-contractor according to its contractual terms.
When Eskom discovered the first welding defects from Hitachi Power Africa, it came to the utility’s attention that the defects were not a mistake but a result of fraud by one sub-contractor.
Natasha Michael, the DA’s spokeswoman on public enterprises, said that the sub-contractor had acquired a fraudulent certificate saying it had done the heat test on the welds when it had not.
“So, I for one would like to see the contracts between Hitachi and its sub-contractors because we are always told it’s the sub-contractor responsible not Hitachi,” Michael said.
The DA wrote to Eskom requesting copies of the contract documents between the utility and its contractors in August. It has since given Eskom two extensions to make this information available.
Michael added that the concern was that when a fault had been found, all other welds had to be tested and this would add extra days, if not months, before Medupi could be commissioned.
Asked if these new developments could affect the new deadline for commissioning Medupi, Eskom said it would not be commenting at this stage as it was waiting to give an update on the progress of its build programme next month.
Melita Steele, the energy campaigner for Greenpeace, said it seemed like every time Eskom and the government tried to assure South Africa that the utility was able to manage the Medupi project and would move ahead to connect it to the grid, new problems emerged.
“Greenpeace is deeply concerned to hear that there are more problems at Medupi. The project has been marred by problems from the beginning.
“This week Eskom apologised to NGOs including Greenpeace because a contractor was spying on them with no instruction to do so from Eskom. That and these new defects demonstrate Eskom’s inability to manage contractors,” Steele said.
Greenpeace said the utility must accept that its business model was failing.
“Their business model to invest in coal is not working. There are problems with finding companies who can deliver these stations without any complications.
“There are environmental concerns, issues with water supply,” Steele added. - Business Report