The Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has welcomed the return to service of Unit 1 at Kusile Power Station, saying it marks a critical milestone in the quest “to recover South Africa’s economy”.
Following safety concerns and repairs required relating to the damaged flue stack at Kusile, units 3 and 1 are now back online.
Eskom on Monday 16 October reported that Kusile Unit 1 had returned to service a month and a half ahead of schedule, since it was taken offline late last year.
The minister said: “The return of the unit, which has been out of commission together with units 2 and 3 since August 2022 following safety concerns related to the structural integrity of the flue stack, comes nearly two months ahead of schedule and adds 800 MW to the grid.
“This marks a significant overall improvement to generation performance, with Kusile Unit 3, which came back online on 29 September 2023, also returning to service two months ahead of schedule.”
The minister highlighted that, “The return of the Kusile units represents a critical milestone in our quest to recover South Africa’s economy, protect jobs, advance universal access to electricity and improve the quality of life.”
The minister remains focused on bolstering the country’s electricity generating capacity, giving attention also to the accelerated expansion and strengthening of transmission infrastructure to accommodate new renewable generation capacity.
Minister Ramokgopa congratulated the Eskom Generation team for the hard work they put into bringing back stability in the Eskom generation fleet, restoring credibility, and reducing the severity of loadshedding.
For more information visit: www.sanews.gov.za
