South African power utility Eskom has synchronised Kusile-3, the third 800 MW unit of its 4,800 MW supercritical coal-fired power plant, to the national power grid eight months ahead of schedule. The unit will now go through the testing and optimisation phases before it can be fully commissioned.
The Kusile power station project is a greenfield supercritical coal-fired power plant, consisting of six 800 MW units and located near the existing Kendal facility in the Nkangala District, Mpumalanga (South Africa). Kusile-1 is currently operational and Kusile-2 has also been synchronized, while the remaining units are still under construction and expected to be commissioned in 2022. The project is part of the effort made by Eskom to ensure security of power supply in South Africa after periods of mandatory load-shedding caused by a lack of generating capacity in the country.