Eskom’s Medupi explosion problems — no quick fixes
Eskom’s assessment of the damage to Medupi Unit 4 is still underway, but the power utility has ruled out the use of equipment from the Kusile power plant for repairs.
Instead of using parts from Kusile to replace those at Medupi, which Eskom said is not financially viable, the power utility plans to refurbish usable elements of the broken unit.
It will pursue other means to replace components that are beyond repair.
“The damage assessment is still in progress in tandem with preserving the undamaged plant,” an Eskom spokesperson told MyBroadband.
“The use of Kusile’s installed plant and equipment have been ruled out as technically and economically not viable for Eskom.”
“Eskom is pursuing the replacement or irreparable components and the refurbishment of usable components,” they added.
The state-owned power utility now plans to accelerate the sourcing of long-lead components. The spokesperson said an expected return-to-service date for Medupi Unit 4 would be communicated once damage assessments have concluded.
Damage at Medupi unit 4
“The plan underway is the acceleration of the procurement process for long-lead items — in this case, the generator stator — whilst the balance of damage assessment is in progress,” they said.
“Once the damage assessment is complete, and all contracts for the restoration are concluded, a firm project schedule will indicate the expected date for Medupi 4 return to service.”
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.
The explosion also caused the neighbouring Unit 5 to trip.
After the explosion, Eskom suspended eight senior employees, including an operating manager, outage manager, two shift managers, and four senior plant operators.
Unit 4 was on a short-term outage since 6 August 2021 when it exploded. Eskom suspended all work on the unit — and all permits to work on the plant — until further notice.
CEO André de Ruyer said that an investigation into the cause of the explosion was nearing completion during Eskom’s state of the system briefing in January. He also said that repairs could cost as much as R2.5 billion.
According to Eskom, the incident occurred while technicians attempted to displace hydrogen with carbon dioxide and air to find an external leak.
Energy expert Chris Yelland said that Eskom could potentially cut down repair times if a generator from the Kusile power station is used to replace the damaged one at Medupi.
André de Ruyter, Eskom CEO
Yelland shared photos of the damage 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. This is a massive setback,” Yelland said.
To compensate for its generation shortfall, Eskom had to rely on its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) to provide emergency generation at times of high demand.
OCGTs are expensive to operate over prolonged periods, as they use diesel to generate power. This was demonstrated earlier this year when Eskom had to implement stage 2 load-shedding and increase it to stage 4 at short notice.
Eskom’s chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer explained that several breakdowns had resulted in the power utility burning 9 million litres of diesel a day to keep up with peak demand.
Extensive use of its diesel reserves resulted in Eskom implementing the rotational power cuts. Rapidly increasing fuel prices will also impact Eskom’s annual budget.
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