The equipment includes T&D’s PIX range of medium-voltage switchgear cubicles, which would be installed at Eskom’s new 4 800 MW Medupi coal-fired power station, in Limpopo province.

The cubicles incorporated T&D’s HVX-type circuit-breakers and digital protection and control relays from T&D’s MiCOM range, which could be configured according to customer requirements.

Delivery of the equipment would start in July 2010, with final deliveries made three years after that.

Local industrial company Actom, formerly called Alstom Electrical Industries, has partnered with T&D on the contract, in line with T&D’s strategy of increasing involvement in the country’s primary distribution market and further localising PIX in South Africa.

“This customised order marks an important step in our aim to increase market share in South Africa. We won this order thanks to a combination of our best-in-class technology, competitive products, and effective and transparent communication with the customer,” Areva T&D product lice vice-president Joachim Dams said.

The Medupi power station, the first new coal-fired station to be built in South Africa in decades, was expected to come on line by the first quarter of 2012.