Steinmüller recognised by Eskom
Steinmüller Kendal Team recognised for Transformative Community Investment
Steinmüller Africa’s Kendal Power Station team has been recognised at the Eskom Managers Awards 2025 as a key player in Corporate Social Investment (CSI), earning praise for a community-focused ap- proach that prioritises listening to local schools and responding with practical, high-impact support.
E skom’s recognition of Steinmüller’s Kendal team celebrates a partner- ship-driven model that has seen the team step away from daily operations to visit neighbouring schools, identify critical needs, and deliver resources ranging from printers and textbooks to food parcels for disadvantaged learners. From school visits to meaningful action “It is an honour to partner with Eskom
to explore ways we can sup- port local communities,” said Nsovo Maswanganyi, Site Man- ager at Steinmüller Africa Ken- dal Power Station. “Our team
Steinmüller Africa Kendal Site Manager, Nsovo Maswanganyi, and Senior Safety Officer, Given Thockey, receive the CSI recognition award as a key player in Corporate Social Investment (CSI).
into meaningful CSI initiatives that make a tangible difference.” Handover days that inspire For Maswanganyi and the Kendal team, the most memorable moments come on handover day. “Schools arrange events
takes the initiative to visit nearby schools and understand their needs firsthand. We often find that schools lack essential resources, such as textbooks, forcing edu- cators to print pages for learners. Schools ask us for printers, learning materials and food parcels, and we turn those needs
Steinmüller earns innovation award for Kriel Unit 6 outage reduction S teinmüller Africa’s crane-free rigging solution shortened the Kriel Unit 6 outage by 60 days, earning the company’s site team the 2025 Eskom Kriel Managers Award for Innovation.
Following a fire incident in 2024 at Unit 6 of the Kriel Power Station, both the turbine hall roof and the overhead crane cables required repair. The roof work demanded a full-height scaffold assembly from floor level to 31 m, which physically obstructed crane access. A rigging solution eliminated a critical bottleneck during the unit’s post-incident recovery. When 31 m scaffolding for roof repairs blocked access to the damaged overhead crane, itself essential for turbine work, the team designed and installed a temporary rigging structure that allowed all three work fronts to proceed in parallel. The conventional sequence of roof repair, scaffold removal, crane restoration and turbine work would have added an estimated two months to the outage. “The scaffolding prevented overhead crane repairs that were necessary to support Eskom Rotek Industries’ turbine mainte- nance on the unit,” said Lonas Makhubele, Kriel Project Manager at Steinmüller Africa. “The Steinmüller Africa team, together with the client, devised a rigging plan without the use of the crane for Rotek activities. We built a rigging structure that our team used to assist Rotek, saving over 60 days on the turnaround. The unit was returned to service notably earlier because of this innovation.” The purpose-built temporary rigging system decoupled the turbine work from crane availability, enabling concurrent execu- tion across all critical paths and compressing the overall project schedule by more than two months. Performance across the fleet The Kriel award reflects broader operational performance across Steinmüller Africa’s Eskom portfolio in 2024-2025. On safety, the company’s site teams at both Kriel and Majuba each surpassed 1 000 000 recordable-case-rate-free hours. The Kriel milestone ran from 11 August 2024 to 30 April 2025, covering
the high-intensity Unit 6 recovery and concurrent outage work. On quality and productivity, Steinmüller Africa completed more than 51 000 pressure-boundary butt welds to radiographic accep- tance standards across Kendal, Kriel, Hendrina and Kusile in 2025, deploying up to 350 coded welders at peak capacity. The Kriel Innovation Award adds to Steinmüller Africa’s consis- tent record of client recognition, including being named Eskom Kendal Contractor of the Year in 2024 and securing six awards at the 2024 Eskom Welding Awards. Industry context The Eskom Kriel Managers Awards recognise measurable contri- butions to station performance across safety, reliability, innovation and operational excellence. The 2025 Innovation Award criteria prioritised solutions that demonstrably improved unit availability or reduced outage duration. “This solution succeeded because of close collaboration, rigor- ous planning and disciplined execution,” Makhubele said. “It’s a model for how contractors and clients can work together to com- press critical paths and improve project outcomes.” https://www.bilfinger.com/en/za Steinmüllers Africa’s onsite team and the Kriel Power Stations celebrate their award of the 2025 Eskom Kriel Managers Award for Innovation.
18
March-April 2026
AFRICAN FUSION
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker