Kusile Power Station - Witbank 5.44

Kusile Power Station in South Africa is a coal-fired power plant under construction by state electricity utility Eskom, about 15 kilometres north of the existing Kendal Power Station near Witbank, Mpumalanga.It is expected that Kusile would consist of six 800 megawatt coal-fired generating units for a total generating capacity of 4,800 megawatts.Coal supplyIn the minutes of a stakeholder briefing, Eskom stated that it "will obtain most of the coal required for Kusile Power Station from Anglo Coal's New Largo operations, south east of the Kusile Power Station."Eskom’s consultants estimate that 35 new coal mines will be required to support the Medupi and Kusile plants.Timeline Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism issued a positive Record of Decision on 5 June 2007. February 2008: Hitachi Power Africa has been awarded the boiler contract worth R18.5 billion and Alstom S&E has been awarded the turbine island works contract valued at R13 billion." April 14, 2011: Black & Veatch Corp. won preliminary approval for $805.6 million in financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank for the Kusile plant. May 31, 2011: Eskom announced that the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) had given its initial approval for an $805 million (R5.78 billion) loan to help Eskom build the plant.DelaysInitially expected to take 6 years to complete, the project is not expected to complete Unit 1 until 2017 and the entire project not until 2021.CorruptionHitachi Power Africa, a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., was found by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to have made US$6 million in corrupt payments to a front company for the African National Congress, the ruling political party in South Africa. Hitachi agreed to pay the SEC US$19 million to settle the charges. Hitachi Power Africa is conducting its works at Kusile now under the name Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa after a reorganization in February 2014 combining Hitachi, Ltd.'s and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry's interests in the region.