Kriel Power Station’s unit 6 was gutted down by a fire on Sunday afternoon.
Eskom’s Daphne Mokwena confirmed the incident happened around 5pm, at Unit 6 of Kriel Power Station.
She said “power correctly tripped following the loss of hydraulic oil to the turbine valves.”
A preliminary investigation revealed that an oil pipe broke, causing an oil spill on the hot surfaces of the turbine, which triggered a fire.
Eskom said the incident will not interfere with the load shedding record, now at day 222.
This is despite Kriel Power Station Unit 6 contribution of 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.
The current available generation capacity is 30 809MW, while Monday’s peak demand is forecasted at 26 364MW.
Mokwena said there are currently adequate reserves for evening peak, with an additional 720MW anticipated to return to service later today, Monday 4 November 2024.
“We want to reassure South Africans that this incident will not impact the current generation capacity or lead to loadshedding. 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” said Mokwena.
She said the system has sufficient reserves.
No injuries and fatalities were reported as a result of the fire, while an investigation continues.
Picture: Supplied