Energy utility Eskom said on Thursday that steady progress was being made on the construction of the Medupi power station, in Limpopo, with a number of milestones being reached on the station’s Unit 6, in preparation for its planned synchronisation to the grid in December.

The burner commissioning programme had been “virtually completed” and plans were to put the first mill in service later this week, after which the blow-through process would begin.

To date, the unit had been generating steam while the commissioning of the burners was in progress. The work in progress had seen the first strainers being blocked, as the debris was being removed from the pipework.

“The whole team remains focused on the final activities of completing blow through, steam pipework restoration, steam cleaning, protection tests, steam to set and synchronisation.

“The team is working around the clock to deliver Unit 6 and the deadline remains clear in everyone’s mind for the end of this year,” said Eskom.

The utility had, meanwhile, also successfully commissioned and operated the ash overland conveyor, which would transport the boiler-bottom ash to the ash-dump area on the western side of the Medupi power station.

The conveyor was 1.8 m wide, about 2.8 km long and had the capacity to handle 2 100 t/h of ash.