Arnot Power Station in Mpumalanga

Mpumalanga

Mpumalanga , is a province of South Africa. The name means east or literally "the place where the sun rises" in Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6.5% of South Africa's land area...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom

Eskom

Eskom is a South African electricity public utility, established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission by the government of South Africa in terms of the Electricity Act . It was also known by its Afrikaans name Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie . The two acronyms were combined in 1986 and...

.

History

Construction of Arnot started in 1968, this generation unit went on line in 1971 and the station was fully operational by 1975. Between 1992 and 1997 three of its units were mothballed due to Eskom's surplus generating capacity, but they were brought back online in January 1997, November 1997 and December 1998 respectively.

Power generation

Power generation is by six 350MW units with at total installed capacity of 2,100MW. Turbine Maximum Continuous Rating

Maximum Continuous Rating

Maximum continuous rating is defined as the maximum output that a generating station is capable of producing continuously under normal conditions over a year. Under ideal conditions, the actual output could be higher than the MCR....

 is 35.60%

Power distribution

In addition to feeding the South African grid, Arnot, along with Camden Power Station, also feeds the Mozal

Mozal

Mozal is the largest aluminium producer in Mozambique and the second-largest in Africa having a total annual production of around 530,000 tonnes. Ownership is BHP Billiton, Mitsubishi Corporation, IFC and the Government of Mozambique...

 Aluminium smelter in Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

 via 400kV transmission lines. Mozal consumes around 950MW.

Safety

Arnot has twice been awarded NOSCAR status by the National Occupational Safety Association.

See also

• Eskom
  Eskom
  Eskom is a South African electricity public utility, established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission by the government of South Africa in terms of the Electricity Act . It was also known by its Afrikaans name Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie . The two acronyms were combined in 1986 and...
  
  
• Fossil-fuel power plant
• List of power stations in South Africa