Eskom today announced the successful addition of Kusile Power Station’s final unit, Unit 6, to the national grid at 16:45. This marks a crucial step in completing one of South Africa’s largest infrastructure projects and is a key milestone in Eskom’s plan to add 2,500MW of new capacity to the grid by March 2025.
“Eskom is at a critical point returning megawatts to the grid as we are currently in a constrained state. This milestone is a testament to the unwavering dedication and resilience of Eskom’s employees and contractors. Their commitment has driven us forward despite numerous challenges. As we celebrate this progress, our focus is now on ensuring that Unit 6 achieves commercial operation in the second half of 2025, further strengthening South Africa’s energy security,” said Eskom Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo.
Once fully operational, Kusile Power Station will contribute 4,800MW to the national grid, solidifying its status as South Africa’s largest infrastructure project. Its sister project, Medupi, will also see Unit 4 return 800MW by the end of April 2025, following an extended outage due to a generator stator failure.
With these developments, both Kusile and Medupi will be essentially completed, significantly enhancing the country’s power generation capacity.
Kusile is also a pioneer in environmental technology, being the first power station in South Africa and Africa to implement Wet Flue Gas Desulphurisation (WFGD). This technology ensures compliance with air quality standards and aligns with global best practices to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.
“Kusile Unit 6’s addition is proof that we are making continued progress in stabilising and strengthening South Africa’s electricity supply,” Eskom Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane, added.
“Meeting the targets we set in the Generation Recovery Plan and our strategic roadmap underscores our determination to deliver new capacity, enhance generation performance, support economic growth, and ultimately deliver a more sustainable energy future.
“We reiterate our commitment to ensuring that South Africa is in no way returning to the levels of loadshedding that we experienced in 2023 and, our focus remains on delivering a more reliable, resilient, and sustainable power system for the country.”
Over the next six months, Unit 6 will undergo extensive testing and optimisation before reaching commercial operation, officially adding 800MW to Eskom’s generation fleet.
This milestone reinforces Eskom’s commitment to its Generation Operational Recovery Plan, strengthening governance, and future-proofing the organisation to ensure energy security, growth, and long-term sustainability for South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
