Construction of coal fired independent power plant in South Africa gets green light

The 600MW KiPower coal fired independent power plant in South Africa has received a clean environmental bill of health from the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) in South Africa for the construction of the power plant near Delmas in Mpumalanga.

This comes in after the department had initially rejected the final environmental-impact assessment report for Kuyasa Mining subsidiary KiPower’s proposed plant. They indicated that there was need for more information on the increasing impacts of the proposed power line connection and the effects it would have on Eskom’s mooted agreement with regard to the proposed connection options of the independent power producer.

The construction of coal fired independent power plant in South Africa will cost US $1.7bn and will be located 5km to the existing Delmas coal mine for coal sourcing and feeding into the national grid. This is expected to produce up to 2000MW in the long term.

The KiPower project will entail construction of four 150MW circulating fluidized bed units each having 400kv three phase transformer and an ash disposal facility.

There will be the inclusion of a 812-m-long sorbent conveyer to transport sorbent from the rail yard onto the overland coal conveyors, which would carry the coal from the Delmas mine to the new power plant.

Integrated Environmental Authorisation also approved the construction of an office area, water treatment plant, a wastewater treatment plant, a sewerage treatment works and the establishment of two diesel fuel oil storage tanks.

Construction work on the KiPower plant is expected to begin before the year ends with the first three units expected to be operational by 2018.