Power Plant Medupi / Kusile

Structural verification for coal bunkers and their collecting bins

Hitachi Power Europe GmbH obtained a commission by Eskom, the state-owned energy supplier, for the new building of twelve large steam generators overall with a capacity of 800 MW each. They will be constructed until the year 2017 at the two power plant locations Medupi and Kusile.

The power plant Medupi, located 350 km north of Johannesburg near Lephalale, is the first new building of a lignite power plant in South Africa after more than 25 years. The second site, Kusile, is located about 150 km east of Johannesburg in the province of Limpopo and is almost identical to the power plant Medupi.

After completion of the two largest and most modern power plants on the African continent these facilities with a total output of 4.800 MW each can provide for almost 20 per cent of the entire electric power supply in South Africa.

ZPP or the predecessor company has been commissioned by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe GmbH as successor to Hitachi Power Systems Europe GmbH with the verification of the structural calculations and the corresponding execution drawings for the coal bunkers. Verification from the structural point of view was also to be provided for the structural calculations of the collecting bins belonging to the coal bunkers as well as the steel structure drawings.