Alstom has signed a contract worth approximately EUR 125 million with South Africa’s state-owned utility Eskom to retrofit the low-pressure turbines of the two 970 MWe units at Koeberg nuclear power plant. Eskom has undertaken a major capital investment programme designed to rapidly increase generating capacity in the country.
The retrofits should increase the station’s power output by over 65 MW, improve availability and reliability, and extend the lifetime of the plant. They will be carried out during planned refuelling outages, to reduce the chances of supply interruptions.
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to further build on our relationship with Eskom through the supply of the retrofit for their two steam turbines,” said Guy Chardon, senior vice president, Alstom Turbomachines group.
Eskom and Alstom have worked together on previous projects such as the retrofitting of the Arnot power plant, an integrated retrofit project providing a capacity increase to that station of more than 300 MW. Eskom recently placed orders for new equipment contracts with Alstom for the Medupi and Kusile coal fired power plants producing 4800 MW each. Alstom has considerable working experience in South Africa – its turbines generate 80% of the country’s installed capacity.
Late last year the South African government pulled the plug on plans for the construction of new nuclear power capacity, citing the cost of the proposed project and the current economic climate. Eskom has been struggling to raise funds for its R343 billion, five-year investment programme, which is designed to improve South Africa’s electricity generation and transmission infrastructure.
Alstom has also recently won orders in South Africa to supply equipment to the 4800 MW Medupi and Kusile coal fired power plants.
