Duvha Power Station in
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, is a
coal-fired power plant operated by
Eskom. The tall chimneys at Duvha are the second and third tallest structures in Africa, only a chimney located at the
Secunda CTL plant is taller.
History
Construction of Duvha Power Station started in November 1975 and the last unit came into operation in 1984.
In 1993 Duvha became the first power station in the world to be retrofitted with
pulse jet fabric filter plants on three of its six units. These plants contribute largely to the reduction of air pollution by removing 99.99% of the
fly ash
Coal combustion products (CCPs), also called coal combustion wastes (CCWs) or coal combustion residuals (CCRs), are byproducts of burning coal. They are categorized in four groups, each based on physical and chemical forms derived from coal combust ...
, which otherwise would be released into the air through the station's chimneys.
On 8 January 2003, Unit 2 generator exploded while being returned to service after a malfunction. On 9 February 2011 another unit failed catastrophically while performing over speed testing. The units are over speed rated at 3600 rpm and the last recorded speed before failure was 4250 rpm.
It was the first power station in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
to have a black power station manager, Ehud Matya.
Power generation
The station consists of six 600 MW units with a total installed capacity of 3,600 MW operating with a turbine efficiency of 37.6%.
The station is a twin sister to
Tutuka Power Station.
Corruption allegations
In April 2017
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the year ...
filed a court application accusing Eskom of rigging the tender to install a new
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...
at the station so that
Dongfang Electric would get the contact even though their bid was R1 billion (US$76 million) more than the General Electric bid.
See also
*
Fossil-fuel power plant
*
List of power stations in South Africa
References
External links
Duvha Power Station on the
Eskom-Website
{{National Key Points navbox
Energy infrastructure completed in 1980
Towers completed in 1980
Energy infrastructure completed in 1984
Coal-fired power stations in South Africa
Towers in South Africa
Chimneys in South Africa
Buildings and structures in Mpumalanga
Economy of Mpumalanga
Emalahleni Local Municipality, Mpumalanga
20th-century architecture in South Africa