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Eskom CEO, Brian Dames, has conceded that the parastatal will likely not meet its December deadline for unit six at its Medupi power station to be up and running.
He provided an update on Monday on Eskom's infrastructure build programme, including the technical and labour challenges facing the massive construction programme.
This comes ahead of the release of Eskom's financial results on Wednesday.
Dames says while significant progress had been made in addressing labour issues affecting the project, several technical challenges remain.
He says a more realistic target for the synchronisation of Unit Six to the power grid is the second half of next year.
Dames adds that the revised schedule is dependent on the success of interventions to ensure critical timelines.
He said "a more realistic target for the first synchronisation of Unit 6 to the grid is the second half of 2014. This is based on in-depth independent and internal assessments of the project which Eskom has undertaken."
"The revised schedule is based on certain assumptions and depends on the success of interventions to ensure critical timelines, on the boiler and control and instrumentation contracts, are met in the next few months as well as the stability of the labour force," Dames added.
"Eskom has put several new interventions in place to expedite delivery of the Medupi project. The Eskom board is closely monitoring the project and senior Eskom executives are on site at Medupi on a weekly basis," said Dames.
"The Medupi project team has been strengthened with specialist support brought in. A bi-monthly meeting has been set up between Eskom executives and the Chief Executives of all the major contractors, including a site walk, in order to resolve all the issues hampering progress. A commercial strategy is being pursued to recover cost overruns from contractors."
Dames said since the inception of the build programme in 2005, Eskom had shown "it can deliver the new electricity infrastructure which South Africa needs to support economic growth and development."
"By 31 March 2013, Eskom had delivered 6 017 of new Generation capacity as well as 4 686 km of new Transmission network and 23 775 MVA of substation transformers," he said.
"The two new large coal-fired stations which Eskom is currently building, Medupi and Kusile, and the new pump storage scheme, Ingula, will together add a further 10 896 MW to the national grid, expanding Eskom's current installed capacity by over 25% by the time they are completed, supporting higher rates of economic growth. These projects are far-advanced, with more than 80% of the funding secured, most of the contracts already placed, and significant progress made on construction and implementation."
