The most expensive coal power station ever built in the history of mankind

When all costs pertaining to the construction of Eskom’s Kusile Power Station are considered, it is likely the most expensive project of its kind ever undertaken.

This is according to energy expert Chris Yelland, who commented on the power station’s lengthy delays and exorbitant costs after Eskom announced the addition of Kusile’s Unit 6 to the national grid on Sunday.

“Considering the capital cost overruns at Kusile, the increased capitalised interest during delayed construction, and the cost to SA businesses due to increased load-shedding following delays, I think this would make Kusile the most expensive coal-fired power station built in mankind’s history,” Yelland said.

Energy policy and investment specialist Anton Eberhard echoed Yelland’s sentiment, saying that while the unit’s 800MW addition to the grid was a good thing, it is difficult to celebrate given the project’s lengthy delays and cost-intensiveness.

“There is little to celebrate with the final unit of Eskom’s Kusile mega coal power station only coming online now, 17 years after the final investment decision was taken in 2008 and costing nearly three times its original budget,” Eberhard said.

“It has been a site of major corruption by a number of Eskom employees and one of the reasons the utility is so indebted, draining the fiscus of close to half a trillion rand in bailouts between 2008-2026.”

Eskom awarded contracts worth R31.5 billion in February 2008 to construct a coal-fired power station called the Bravo Project, which it intended to complete in 2017.

Upon completion, the Kusile power station would consist of six units, each contributing a capacity of 800MW.

Hitachi Power Africa was awarded the boiler contract worth R18.5 billion, and Alstom S&E, the turbine island works contract worth R13 billion.

Construction then began in August of that year, a few months after South Africans were introduced to the rolling blackouts that became known as load-shedding.

However, inefficient project management, labour disputes, vandalism, and corruption contributed to numerous delays, and by 2017, all Eskom had to show for its Bravo Project was Unit 1 achieving commercial power.

Eskom synchronised Unit 2 to the national grid a few months later, but it would be more than three years before it reached commercial operation. Unit 3 began commercial operation in early 2021, followed by Unit 4 in 2022 and Unit 5 in 2023.

However, Units 1, 2, and 3 were all taken offline at the end of 2022 due to the collapse of part of a flue duct.

Faulty emission control systems and human errors caused a cement-like deposit in the flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) duct, causing part of the chimney-like structure to collapse.

The units going offline significantly contributed to the country’s worst period of load-shedding.

Eskom responded by devising a quick fix to bring the units back online and alleviate the risk of load-shedding.

While conducting long-term repairs on the FGD system, it proposed temporarily operating the units using chimney stacks.

These lack the emissions-reduction capabilities of the FGD system, which are necessary for Eskom to meet government-mandated pollution limits.

Cognisant of Eskom’s severe generation challenges, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment granted Eskom an exemption which would allow using the stacks until the end of March 2025.

The units were brought back online a few weeks apart in late 2023, playing an instrumental role in Eskom’s ability to fend off load-shedding for about 10 months.

They were then taken offline in late 2024 to install the permanent solution to the damaged FDG ducts.

At the beginning of March, Eskom CEO Dan Marokane mentioned that two Kusile units had been brought back online but did not specify which two they were.

Kusile has also been home to significant corruption involving employees.

The power utility recently announced that six people were arrested for their involvement in a fraudulent procurement scheme at Kusile Power Station, one of the hotbeds for incidents of corruption.

The arrests included a former Kusile procurement officer and procurement manager and followed a coordinated intelligence-driven operation.

The investigation found that a pump was unlawfully procured for R857,977 in 2018 after an identical pump with the same serial number was bought for just R18,835 in 2015.

Eskom said the fraudulent transaction led to a direct financial loss for the power utility.