History:
The planning and design of Kriel Power Station began in the early seventies. Construction also started in the early seventies and the station began operating at full capacity early 1979. When Kriel was completed in 1979, it
was the largest coal-fired station in the Southern Hemisphere. 
 
Kriel was instrumental in breaking ground for the large 3600 MW power stations such as Duvha, Matla, Kendal, Matimba and Lethabo. It was one of the first stations to be supplied with coal from a fully mechanised coal mine, with the coal arriving at the boilers from the mine. 
 
Kriel is unique in that each turbine generator set is separate, whereas in Eskom's other stations, all the turbines are housed in a single turbine hall, all placed along the same axis. It is a winning station in terms of its plant performance and was awarded the Jan H Smith trophy for being the best power station by Eskom in 1991 and 1995.
 
Kriel performed very well with all operational indicators being satisfactory and some outstanding technical achievements, particularly in the area of plant performance. We had set ourselves the goal of a unit capability factor of 90%; a planned outage rate of 7% and a forced outage rate of 3% and by the year 2000. This was already bettered in 1996, placing us in the best quartile of the UNIPEDE member countries. 
 
Kriel Power Station, generating 3000 MW, was the forerunner of the new generation of giant coal-fired power stations developed to generate the increasing supply of electricity demanded by South Africa's constant growth.
 
Technical details: