Anyone heard of Medupi powerstation project?

[Captain Slog]

Saw this in an expat job mail - anyone know about it?

**** Help Build the Biggest Power Station in South Africa. ****

This is your chance to join Eskom and PB, working on the first Greenfield coal-fired power station to be built in South Africa in 20 years – Lephalale’s Medupi Power Station, in the Limpopo province.

Medupi – which means ‘the rain that soaks parched lands bringing economic relief’ – will bring jobs and prosperity to a country that’s advancing constantly. It comprises six units rated in total at 4,788 MW installed capacity.

Click on this link for further details

http://clk.atdmt.com/3B1/go/xptngpbr...3b1/direct/01/

**** Help Build the Biggest Power Station in South Africa. ****

[Frankie]

Being in the power industry, I most certainly have heard of this project.
It's near Elisras in the same area as Matimba Power Station. I hear that the civil work is underway.

The international power company that employs me did not bid, citing high risk and corruption.

I guess Eishkom are getting around the AA/BEE regulations by recruiting through this UK company.

[Captain Slog]

Being in the power industry, I most certainly have heard of this project.
It's near Elisras in the same area as Matimba Power Station. I hear that the civil work is underway.

The international power company that employs me did not bid, citing high risk and corruption.

I guess Eishkom are getting around the AA/BEE regulations by recruiting through this UK company.

So all the stories about NOTHING being done by Eskom are bulsh - FEED etc take years and if the civils have begun already they have been planning and designing for ages. No excuse, but not as bad as ignoring completely.

Surely AA/BEE requirements are irrelevant during construction and commissioning.

A new batch of souties enter SA! Red necks and all!

BTW Elisras is dead - long live Lephalale

[Frankie]

This project has been on the cards for some time, but BS has delayed the final signing of the contracts to just recently - what I hear is that another US company withdrew right near the end, most likely for the same reasons my company cited.

The first unit will only come online in about three years from now, if there's no further delays, so no, I would not let Eishkom off the hook.

This recruitment using a UK company is a costly face saving exercise - they can't change the AA policy and re-hire all those that left during the big 'white out', while maintaining a full staff compliment of AA candidates.

[Mephisto_Helix]

Medupi – which means ‘the rain that soaks parched lands bringing economic relief’

... oh my word, lol.

[Just_Ice]

Medupi – which means ‘the rain that soaks parched lands bringing economic relief’

Seriously? Thats hilarious!

[ToxicBunny]

I'm damn sure Medupi does not mean that.... at least not the "bringing economic relief" part..

[Syndyre]

I'm damn sure Medupi does not mean that.... at least not the "bringing economic relief" part..

Seems a bit too convenient.

Edit:

Looks like the last part was a bit of a creative addition:

The 4200 mW coal-fired power station in Lephalele would be named Medupi, meaning "the name that soaks parched land".

[Setho]

Being in the power industry...

Thanks for posting, Frankie. Are you free to discuss a bit about the substations that are at risk from being blown out from the constant on/off of the power grid?


It seems to me that the constant on/off pattern of power grid abuse is not likely to abate anytime soon, given Eskom's institutional head-in-the-ground approach in honest, transparent house-cleaning that they must do in order to turn things around.


So, given the continuation of the on/off of the power supply on the grid, more substations are surely going to blow out...but nobody could guess which one would be the next one, right? Do any of the substations give off any kinds of pre-blow-out warnings of any kind?


One can only imagine the problems if a substation that is critical for feeding power into industrial areas, like the mines, blows out...all for the sake of Eskom to avoid honest house-cleaning. Sheesh...human nature.


And, when substation blowouts happens, doesn't that cause simultaneous surges in other areas, now that a given amount of power has less area in which to spread out?


And the recent court decision to prevent any load-shedding on a one specific company -- I can't blame that company seeking a load-shedding exemption, as it was justified -- that means that there likely would be many more exemptions granted to other industries/companies as well, as there ought to be, since many companies suffer very, very badly when the power goes off...but all that means more load-shedding on the general population and smaller businesses, many of whom are not keen to suffer additional and very serious economic losses due to longer-lasting power outages.


And now that the colder months of May/June are approaching, with their attendant significant load increases on the grid...man, this is a situation that is just waiting to blow, pun intended.

[spike_za]

Being in the power industry, I most certainly have heard of this project.
It's near Elisras in the same area as Matimba Power Station. I hear that the civil work is underway.

The international power company that employs me did not bid, citing high risk and corruption.

I guess Eishkom are getting around the AA/BEE regulations by recruiting through this UK company.

Um no I work for PB power (Parsons Brinckerhoff power South Africa) its a SA company we are doing the project management on the Medupi project about 10KM from matimba.

What company do u work for?
there are very few that will take on a 80 billion rand project

I visited the site a few weeks back it an awesome project the world biggest dry cooled coal power station the currently they busy with the civil works( biggest civil project in SA makes gautrain look like a joke)

[-toady-]

Saw this in an expat job mail - anyone know about it?

**** Help Build the Biggest Power Station in South Africa. ****

This is your chance to join Eskom and PB, working on the first Greenfield coal-fired power station to be built in South Africa in 20 years – Lephalale’s Medupi Power Station, in the Limpopo province.

Medupi – which means ‘the rain that soaks parched lands bringing economic relief’ – will bring jobs and prosperity to a country that’s advancing constantly. It comprises six units rated in total at 4,788 MW installed capacity.

Click on this link for further details

http://clk.atdmt.com/3B1/go/xptngpbr...3b1/direct/01/

**** Help Build the Biggest Power Station in South Africa. ****

Wonder if this Medupi Power Station is anywhere near where the thousands of swallows died due to 'global warming'.....hmmmmm.

[Frankie]

Um no I work for PB power (Parsons Brinckerhoff power South Africa) its a SA company ware doing the project management on the Medupi project about 10KM from matimba.

The URL posted is clearly targeting UK based skills, and we expect that these skills will be the wrong colour to satisfy the AA criteria, and they wouldn't even qualify in the 'previously disadvantaged' category - so how are you fiddling the AA requirements, or have you got special clearance to disregard this when 'real skilled people' are needed (just like the legal teams that represent the politicians).
What happened to the project management (new works) skills that Eskom had, they were replaced with incompetents.

Are any of those incompetents responsible for the sorry state of Eskom getting the chop, or do they keep their jobs while we pay outside companies to do their work? - We all know the answer to that - BIG bonuses for the useless fat cats - you know these fat cat bonuses wouldn't be that disgusting if they were at least competent/qualified for their posts and showed some work ethics.

http://clk.atdmt.com/3B1/go/xptngpbr...3b1/direct/01/ = http://www.energisethenewsouthafrica.co.uk/

http://www.pbworld.com/

What company do u work for?
there are very few that will take on a 80 billion rand project

I worked for the American company that tendered for the boilers on this project, but joined a similar size UK based company a few years ago.
I'm not making their names public here.

How many Power Plant projects has Parsons Brinckerhoff done? - I don't see any on their web site.

I visited the site a few weeks back it an awesome project the world biggest dry cooled coal power station the currently they busy with the civil works( biggest civil project in SA makes gautrain look like a joke)

I have been commissioning new power plants internationally for a good few years now, getting involved in the design liaison meetings on a few of them and then I get to see the early stages of civil's, some being larger than this project.
I expect that these units will be direct dry cooled like Matimba and a few units at Majuba. I've also worked on the worlds largest indirect dry cooled, Kendal.

[Frankie]

A colleague just posed this question in an email I received today.

PS
I had a call from a guy in ESKOM last week about the possible offer of a job out there. I believe you have worked in South Africa in the past - what would be your thoughts on someone going out there for say a 3 year contract ?

What should I tell him ?

[BCO]

Tell him it's a good idea. The country needs his skills.

[Frankie]

Tell him it's a good idea. The country needs his skills.

He'd have his family with him - should he be warned of the dangers i.e. the violent crime?

I'm undecided on this - on the one hand I feel that he should be advised against exposing himself and his family to the risk, but on the other hand as you say SA needs these skills.
There's also the issue and that is why can't a white South African be offered this?