Electricity supply remains vulnerable

According to the statement released by the public electricity entity, unit 1 of the Koeberg power station is currently out of service due to a technical fault on the main generator transformer. It was stated that this resulted in the unit being isolated from the national grid. “Our engineers are currently onsite to determine the root cause of the fault. The nuclear reactor is not affected by the fault,” the statement read.

It was also stated that unit 1 was scheduled to go on a planned refuelling, inspection and maintenance outage on 9 February and that the maintenance team would determine if the unit can be brought back in the next few days or be taken out for its planned maintenance earlier than scheduled. It was also said that the Koeberg unit 2 is currently generating full power and there is no nuclear safety concern for both units 1 and 2 and that each unit contributes 930MW to the national power grid.

The statement read, “Although the system remains stable, it may be vulnerable overnight. Government and Eskom will give an update on the progress at Koeberg and the general state of the power system. We would like to thank South Africans for heeding our call to use electricity sparingly.”

The company Twitter handle Eskom Hld SOC Ltd Verified account @Eskom_SA stated that Eskom generates, transmits and distributes about 95 percent of the electricity used in South Africa and about 45 percent of the electricity used in Africa.