Eskom says Kriel power station fire will not cause load-shedding

A fire at Kriel power station’s unit 6 in Mpumalanga on Sunday would not affect generation capacity nor lead to load-shedding, Eskom said on Monday. 

The power utility said the unit had tripped after the loss of hydraulic oil to the turbine valves.

“A preliminary investigation revealed 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 affect the current generation capacity or lead to load-shedding,” Eskom said in a statement. 

It said incremental results of its generation recovery plan had added more of a buffer to the system to manage incidents such as this. “The system has sufficient reserves.”

The station’s fire and emergency team responded swiftly to extinguish and contain the fire. No personnel were injured and all other units at the power station remain fully operational.

Eskom said unit 6 contributed 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 today’s peak demand is forecast at 26,364MW.” 

Eskom said there were adequate reserves for the evening peak, with an additional 720MW expected to return to service on Monday. 

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