State-owned power utility Eskom added the Kusile power station’s final unit – Unit 6 – to the national grid on Sunday afternoon, a key milestone in Eskom’s strategic objective of adding 2 500 MW of new capacity to the grid by March this year.

Kusile power station will contribute 4 800 MW to the national grid once all units are fully operational.

Over the next six months, the unit will undergo extensive testing and optimisation before reaching commercial operation, when its 800 MW capacity will be officially added to the Eskom generation fleet.

Sister project, the Medupi power station, will see its Unit 4 return 800 MW by the end of April from an extended outage following a generator stator failure and the completion of the project, Eskom says.

“Both South Africa’s new build power station projects will then be essentially completed, once Kusile Unit 6 is in commercial operation,” Eskom says.

Further, Kusile is the first power station in South Africa and Africa to implement wet flue gas desulphurisation technology, which ensures compliance with air quality standards and aligns with global best practices to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.

“Eskom is at a critical point returning megawatts to the grid, as we are currently in a constrained state. Our focus now is on ensuring that Unit 6 achieves commercial operation in the second half of 2025 to further strengthen South Africa’s energy security,” says Eskom group executive for generation Bheki Nxumalo.

“The addition of Kusile's Unit 6 is proof that we are making continued progress in stabilising and strengthening South Africa’s electricity supply,” adds Eskom Group CE Dan Marokane.

“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,” he says.