General Electric South Africa has signed a R500 million contract to help the build of a new coal-fired power plant, Manufacturing Digital can reveal.
 
GE Industrial Solutions in South Africa General Manager, Ross Boyd, said that the firm will install and maintain fuses and other equipment for the massive R125 billion Medupi power station project that Eskom is building in the Limpopo province, northern South Africa.
 
Boyd said the work, on what is a controversial coal-fired power plant, would create a number of jobs.
 
He added that GE will be investing in its facility in Midrand, Gauteng, to enable it to fulfil the order.
 
South African-based suppliers will also benefit as a direct result of the contract.
 
The GE investment would be directed towards the installation of copper bending and punching machines, testing benches, as well as sheet-metal processing facilities, the company said.
 
The first 800-MW unit at Medupi is officially scheduled to begin operating as from April 2012.
 
The first switchgear units will be manufactured in September and will be installed on site over the next two years, starting in early 2011.
 
SOURCE: GE
 
Edited by Ellie Duncan