Eskom said that a fire that broke out on Sunday evening at Kriel Power Station Unit 6 will have no impact on the utility’s ability to provide power.
The station is located in Mpumalanga, a coal-fired power plant.
The blaze broke out at 5pm and “correctly tripped following the loss of hydraulic oil to the turbine valves,” Eskom said.
Videos on the social media site, X (formerly Twitter) showed huge smoke clouds and bursts of fire at the station, with workers rushing to attend to the matter.
WATCH:
Videos of Kriel Power Station (Unit 6) today around 17:30 pic.twitter.com/sxJdkKQGT2
An oil spill
After an initial investigation, the utility said that it can reveal that an oil pipe had broken, causing an oil spill on the hot surfaces of the turbine, which triggered a fire.
”Eskom assures South Africans that this incident will not impact the current generation capacity or lead to load shedding,” it said in a statement.
“The ongoing, incremental results of the Generation Recovery Plan have continually added more of a buffer to the system to manage incidents such as this. The system has sufficient reserves,” Eskom said.
The nation’s main energy supplier said that Kriel’s fire and emergency team responded swiftly to extinguish and contain the fire on Sunday.
Eskom emphasised that no personnel were injured, and all other units at the power station remain fully operational.
“The standard investigation procedure in now under way to assess the extent of the damage, as well as the time required for repairs and restoration. Eskom will make a further announcement when the results of this investigation are finalised,” the utility explained.
The national grid
Kriel’s Unit 6 provided 475MW to the power grid.
“With this unit temporarily offline, total unplanned outages stand at 8,483MW, still 4,517MW below the base case for summer 2024,” Eskom said.
The utility said that SA’s current available generation capacity is 30,809MW, while Monday’s peak demand is forecast to be 26,364MW.
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