Arnot Power Station

Arnot Power Station
Arnot Power Station
	Location of Arnot Power Station
Country	South Africa;
Location	Mpumalanga, South Africa
Coordinates	25°56′38″S 29°47′22″E / 25.94384°S 29.78956°E
Status	Operational
Commission date	1971-1975
Owner(s)	Eskom
Operator(s)	Eskom;
Employees	800 (2017);
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Coal
Turbine technology	Steam turbine;
Power generation
Units operational	1 x 370 MW; 1 x 390 MW; 2 x 396 MW; 2 x 400 MW
Units planned	6 × 350 MW
Nameplate capacity	2,352 Megawatt
External links
Commons	Related media on Commons
	[edit on Wikidata]

Arnot Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom. Coal from the Arnot coal mine directly feeds the station.

History

Construction of Arnot started in 1968, this generation unit went on line in 1971 and the station was fully operational by 1975.^[1] 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.

The cooling towers were constructed using a unique convex slip-form process by the contractor Concor.

Power generation

Power generation was originally by six 350 MW units with a total installed capacity of 2,100 MW.^[2] Turbine Maximum Continuous Rating is 35.60% ^[2]

Unit ratings now given as 1 x 370 MW; 1 x 390 MW; 2 x 396 MW; 2 x 400 MW for a total of 2,352 MW installed capacity and 2,232 MW nominal capacity.^[3]

Power distribution

In addition to feeding the South African grid, Arnot, along with Camden Power Station, also feeds the Mozal Aluminium smelter in Mozambique via 400 kV transmission lines.^[2] Mozal consumes around 950 MW.^[4]