Eskom shuts down 60-year-old Komati power station

Eskom on Monday shut down the last remaining coal-fired generation unit at its 60-year-old Komati power station in Mpumalanga.

The site will now be transformed into a wind and solar energy production site, the state-owned utility said.

“After serving South Africa since 1961, the coal-fire Komati power station … has today reached the end of its operating life and has been shut down from midday,” it said in a statement.

“Unit 9 was commissioned in March 1966, the last of nine units that were built. Other units were shut down over the years as they reached the end of their operating life, a legislated requirement.”

Eskom assured South Africans that shutting down Komati will have only a limited impact on electricity supply as the last remaining unit was generating only 121MW.

Eskom has transferred most of the staff at the power station to other facilities. “No Eskom employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closure,” it said.

Komati will now be converted into a renewable energy generation site producing 150MW of solar and 70MW of wind. Eskom is also installing 150MW of battery storage at the site. These measures, the utility said, will allow it to continue utilising the transmission infrastructure at the power station.

Funding for the renewable energy facility has been secured from a development financial institution, which Eskom didn’t name. “Eskom will make an official announcement in due course,” it said.

Read: SA needs 53GW of new energy capacity by 2032: Eskom

“The Komati project is one of the largest coal-fired power plant decommissioning, repowering and repurposing projects globally and will serve as a global reference on how to transition fossil-fuel assets.”  — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media

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