Eskom, South Africa state-owned power utility, has confirmed that it would not be able to meet the end of year deadline for the commissioning of the Medupi power station, currently under construction in the Limpopo province. The power plant was expected to supply first power by December 2013 but the first unit will not be commissioned before the second half of 2014. If Eskom meets this new schedule, the plant could be fully operational by 2017.
Investment costs have also been re-evaluated, from R91.2bn (US$9.2bn) to R105bn (US$10.6bn), excluding interest during construction, estimated at R30bn (US$3bn). The project costs were initially estimated at R87bn (US$8.8bn) for a commissioning in 2011.
A large part of this cost increase is due to the owner's development costs (+R5bn to R11bn), as Eskom had to allocate additional urgent resources in a bid to deal with delays on the strike-prone site (8 months of strike since 2009). Moreover, Alstom failed to solve problems that occurred in the instrumentation and control system (still not operational) and is no facing potential penalties.
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