Eskom has announced the shutdown of the coal-fired Komati power station in Mpumalanga, as it has reached the end of its operating life and will see its closure from midday today.
The power utility said that the shutting down of the plant will not have any significant impact on the national electricity grid as the remaining unit was only contributing 121MW. Eskom has transferred the majority of Komati employees from the power station to support and augment skills at other power stations and areas of the business, in line with operational requirements.
Eskom has made an assurance that employees will not lose their jobs as a result of the closure.
“The decommissioning of the power station has followed a diligent process which comprised undertaking a socio-economic impact study. Eskom has held extensive engagements with the employees, labour unions, the community and all affected stakeholders, and communicated the requirement to shut down the plant timeously and clearly with everyone involved.
Komati is one of the power stations previously mothballed due to the country’s excess generation capacity in the early 1980s, the age of the station and the high maintenance costs. Unit 9 was then mothballed in 1989,” said Eskom.
Then a decision was made to return Komati power station to service, with the refurbishment commencing on August 14, 2006.
“Unit 9 was handed over to Eskom’s generation division on December 24, 2008 and declared commercial on January 4, 2009.
The end of Komati’s coal-fired journey marks the beginning of another exciting journey in the service of South Africa,” added Eskom.
Eskom, which has been having ongoing problems load shedding problems, says they have developed a comprehensive Just Energy Transition (JET) Strategy, placing equal importance on the “transition to lower-carbon technologies”, and the ability to do so in a manner that is “just” and sustainable.
“The remaining employees will take part in the Komati repowering and repurposing project,” the utility said.
The power plant will be converted into a renewable generation site powered with 150MW of solar; 70MW of wind; and 150MW of storage batteries; thereby continuing to put the site and its associated transmission infrastructure into good use and provide economic opportunities to the community. A containerised micro-grid assembly factory has already been established on site,” said Eskom.
The Star