Eskom, South Africa power utility, has officially re-opened the Grootvlei Power Station, which was mothballed more than two decades ago when South Africa had surplus electricity capacity. The 1,200MW Grootvlei power station (with 6 x 200 MW generating units), which is situated close to the town of Balfour, in Mpumalanga was first commissioned in 1969 with six units. Owing to lack of demand three of these units were mothballed in 1989 and the rest in 1990.
However, demand for power in South Africa has continued to grow over the years, necessitating that Eskom build new power stations, return previously mothballed power stations to service and increase the capacity of some, and strengthen its distribution and
transmissions networks. The return to service of Grootvlei power station near Balfour began in 2004. After the refurbishment and reassembling, all the plant components were started up and returned to running condition. In July 2007, Grootvlei’s unit 1 was for the first time successfully synchronised with the grid since it had been mothballed in August 1988. The other units were brought into commercial operation at intervals after that, and the station’s last unit to go into commercial operation was unit 5 in July 2011.
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