Medupi explosion will cost Eskom R2.5 billion and take years to fix
An investigation into the cause of the blast that damaged the Unit 4 generator at the Medupi coal power plant is close to completion, and it will cost R2.5 billion to repair.
This is according to Eskom CEO André de Ruyter, who spoke at Eskom’s first State of the System media briefing in 2022.
De Ruyter said that the incident is covered by insurance. He said Eskom’s initial findings point towards non-compliance by Eskom staff members and management failures.
He had previously said that repairs would cost between R1.5 billion and R2 billion.
The devastating explosion happened on Sunday, 8 August 2021, after a blunder by the power plant’s staff created a volatile mixture of hydrogen and oxygen in the Unit 4 generator.
According to Eskom, the incident occurred while technicians attempted to displace hydrogen with carbon dioxide and air to find an external leak.
What resulted was a devastating blast so powerful that some residents of Lephalale (formerly Ellisras), located about 10km from the plant, mistook it for an earthquake.
“Following the power station preliminary investigation, it appears that while performing this activity, air was introduced into the generator at a point where hydrogen was still present in the generator at sufficient quantities to create an explosive mixture, which ignited and resulted in the explosion,” the power utility stated.
“It also appears that there was a deviation from the procedure for carrying out this activity.”
No one was injured due to the explosion, but De Ruyter said that it would take at least two years to repair the Unit 4 generator.
In its media briefing, Eskom said it is targeting August 2024 for Medupi’s Unit 4 generator to return to service.
Energy expert Chris Yelland said that Eskom could reduce the repair time if an unused generator from the Kusile power station replaces the damaged one at Medupi.
Yelland published photos of the damage to Medupi’s Unit 4 generator shortly after the incident occurred.
“The ends of the generator have been blown off, the generator is destroyed, and it will have to be replaced,” he said.
“This is a massive setback.”
To compensate for the generation shortfall, the power utility had to rely on its open-cycle gas turbines to provide emergency generation at times of high demand.
These OCGTs are expensive to operate over prolonged periods, as they use diesel to generate power.
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