Rain slows work at Medupi construction site

Workers are seen at the construction site of Eskom's Medupi power station, a new dry-cooled coal-fired power station, in Limpopo. File picture: Siphiwe Sibeko

Workers are seen at the construction site of Eskom's Medupi power station, a new dry-cooled coal-fired power station, in Limpopo. File picture: Siphiwe Sibeko

Published Mar 17, 2014

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Eskom had to stop all outdoor activity on the Medupi construction site for safety reasons as heavy rains that started at the beginning of the month persisted in Limpopo.

Although Eskom said on Friday that indoor work had continued, the construction site was shut down for at least a day.

Stephen Nhlapo, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA’s national co-ordinator for the basic metals and energy sector, said he was aware of the closure and the reason.

But even with the reported interruptions, Eskom indicated that the downpours did not affect progress on unit 6, the first generator that is supposed to be commissioned in the second half of this year.

“Indoor work continues. In particular, work on Medupi’s unit 6, which is the first due to be commissioned, continues,” Eskom said in an e-mail.

The SA Weather Service’s rainfall statistics report released last week showed that Limpopo had the highest number of weather stations recording more than 100mm of rainfall in the first 10 days of the month.

Some districts in Mpumalanga and Limpopo experienced rainfall in excess of 300mm. The average rainfall in Lephalale, the site of Medupi, in the first 10 days of March was 159mm.

“You cannot manipulate the rain, but it depends on the way you are doing construction. You can move on to tasks that do not depend on the weather situation, if you have those,” said Phumudzo Tharaga from the SA Weather Service.

Last month, Eskom said civil work at Medupi was almost complete and the construction was more focused on the control systems.

Although the SA Weather Service’s report showed that Witbank in Mpumalanga, where Kusile is located, recorded an average of 161mm of rainfall in the first 10 days of March, Eskom said there had been no weather-related issues at the Kusile construction site “as far as we are aware”.

In its new build report published in January, Eskom said the station was 54 percent complete, meaning that there was still a chunk of outdoor civils work to do when one considers that the construction site is 1 355 hectares. At that time, 70.5 percent of main civils work was complete.

No heavy rain or flood warnings were issued for the two provinces for this week, but a 6 percent chance of rain was forecasted for Witbank on Tuesday and Thursday, while Lephalale had a 60 percent chance of rain on Thursday only. – Business Report

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