Komatipoort

The original inhabitants of the region around Komatipoort were the Bushmen. Their paintings they have been discovered under rock ledges, that date back from a hundred to a thousands of Years ago. The Town of Komatipoort came into being in 1887. The name of the Town is derived from the Swazi named ‘Komati’ River, meaning literally ‘river of cows or hippos’ and the Afrikaans term 'poort’; meaning Valley. Komati Power Station is situated in Mpumalanga halfway between Middelburg and Bethel, and when it was completed, it had a capacity of more than twice of any existing power station in South Africa at the time. Planning of this station commenced in June 1957. Its ultimate capacity was to be 1 000 kW produced by five generators (No’s 1 to 5) of 1000,000 kW each and four generators (No’s 6 to 9) of 125,000 kW each. Each generator has its own boiler. The first generator went to into service at the end of 1961, and the last machine was commissioned early in 1966. After six decades of producing electricity from coal, Eskom shut down South Africa’s oldest coal power station, the Komati power station. (FURTHER READING- for more info.) The power utility, Eskom said in a statement: "the facility will be transformed into a wind and solar energy production site. After serving South Africa since 1961, the coal-fired Komati power station has today reached the end of its operating life and has been shut down from midday!”