Power utility Eskom says the second unit at the Kusile Power Station in Mpumalanga attained commercial operational status on Thursday.
It says this means the Unit officially moves to be part of its generation fleet, contributing up to 800 Megawatts of power to the South African power grid.
Unit 2 thus moves from project status where it has been tested for the past 16 months.
“The commercial operation of Unit 2 is a major milestone that signifies the progress being made by Eskom towards the completion of the Kusile Build Project," said Bheki Nxumalo, Group Executive for Capital Projects.
This becomes the second unit at Kusile to enter commercial operation, with Unit 1 having attained commercial operation status in 2017.
Nxumalo said the construction, testing and optimisation activities on the remaining four units, some of which are currently providing intermittent power to support the grid, is progressing well.
Kusile is the first power station in South Africa and Africa to use wet flue gas desulphurisation (WFGD) technology.
WFGD is the current state-of-the-art technology used to remove oxides of sulphur (SOx), for example, sulphur dioxide (SO2), from the exhaust flue gas in power plants that burn coal or oil.
Eskom is fitting WFGD to the Kusile plant as an atmospheric emission abatement technology, in line with current international practise, to ensure compliance with air quality standards.
