News Flash
- Eskom has belatedly confirmed that a fire broke out and damaged generation unit 5 that is still under construction at Kusile Coal Power Station last month.
- The fire occurred at a gas air heater on 17 September which is in commissioning process phase.
- This is not the first fire incident at the utility, in August 2018 a fire broke out at the fabric filter plant causing extensive damage.
Related news: R30 billion needed to complete Kusile and Medupi power stations
The power utility said that while its fire protection systems extinguished the fire, inspections showed “significant damage”. Eskom said it was still in the process of inspecting the damage for repair works plus what caused the fire.
“All efforts are being applied to expedite the repair of the gas air heater to enable the progress of commissioning of the unit and synchronisation to the national grid,” said Eskom.
Both Kusile and Medupi coal fired power stations are plagued by design faults, project mismanagement and corruption which has caused massive overruns in commissioning lead times and budget. Read more
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
