LETTER: Fast-tracking of Medupi at the root of design changes
A number of decisions had to be made, often based on incomplete information
“Eskom’s Medupi, Kusile hobbled by design flaws” (12 February 2019) refers. The main contract for Medupi was signed by Eskom and Hitachi on October 30 2007.The subcontract was signed by Hitachi and Murray & Roberts (M&R) on December 6 2007. M&R had limited recent experience in the construction of power stations, which resulted in a co-operation agreement being executed by which all dealings between Hitachi and M&R were to be conducted in the utmost good faith. Hitachi undertook to bring the necessary expertise to M&R to fulfil its role in the partnership. According to M&R, the biggest challenge in this project is the management and implementation of revisions from Hitachi. Hitachi has provided continuously changing basic engineering designs, which have led to: Significant delay and disruption to M&R. No recovery of the learning curve savings and little prospect of future recovery. Inefficient connection design, detail engineering and fabrication process, leading to M&R incurring sig...
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