South African power utility Eskom on Tuesday moved to allay fears that its Medupi power station was likely to be delayed by two years.

"The Medupi power station has not been delayed by two years, and reports suggesting this are not true," the utility said in a statement.

A media report earlier on Tuesday quoted diversified resources group Exxaro as saying the 4,800 megawatts Medupi coal-fired power plant was behind by two years.

Medupi's first of six 800 MW units were due to come on stream by April 2012.

Eskom has previously mentioned that there is a potential three-month delay on Medupi for the commissioning of the first unit to September 2012, with additional units coming on stream individually every six to eight months thereafter.

There were also media reports last month that also suggested that Eskom's other major power station Kusile was being scrapped. These reports were also squashed by Eskom.

"Various 'scenarios', including stopping the building of Kusile or delaying Medupi for two years, have been run for the Department of Energy's Integrated Resources Plan 2 (IRP 2) modelling but they are no more than scenarios," said Eskom finance director Paul O'Flaherty.

"In particular, Eskom has submitted a proposed funding model for Kusile to the government. A decision on it is imminent following which Eskom will be in a better position to comment on how Kusile will be funded," said O'Flaherty.

"The government and Eskom are 100% committed to building Kusile," he added. Costs for Medupi are 125 billion rand and for the second power station Kusile 140 billion rand. These costs include estimated interest to be capitalized on monies borrowed to fund these projects.