South Africa: Heavy toll of mismanagement gradually becoming clear

The first unit of the catastrophically late and over budget 4,764MW Medupi power plant missed its latest deadline for synchronisation with the grid at year-end. While the start of production is promised soon, nearly four years since the first date passed, the latest problem involved steam blow-through cleaning of the turbine, which failed to reach the velocities required to hit international benchmarks. Steam blow-through aims to remove construction debris from inside the boiler piping, vessels and other components. If they are not removed, the particles can cause damage to the steam turbine once it is fed from the boiler.