Eskom delays Koeberg unit return-to-service
Eskom has revealed that Koeberg’s Unit 2 generator will only return to service by the end of July 2022, after previously confirming that it was set for the middle of the month.
The power utility’s chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer attributed the delays to unexpected issues with the unit’s polar crane, which it has now resolved.
He added that Eskom is now making good progress on returning the unit to service. Once the generating unit has been ramped up successfully, it will add 920MW to the national power grid.
Oberholzer said the plan is to ramp up the unit’s power generation at the end of July. It would take around ten days to reach total capacity.
He added that the power utility would not replace the unit’s steam generators during the outage. Eskom will replace the steam generators at a later stage.
The power utility previously told MyBroadband that the unit’s start-up process had begun in late June.
Eskom also told MyBroadband that it had reached a significant milestone in replacing the unit’s reactor pressure vessel cover during the outage.
It said replacing the cover was a prerequisite for Koeberg’s life extension.
“In addition, following the deferral of the Steam Generator Replacement project, a full suite of steam generator inspections were required to be performed to confirm the operability of the existing steam generators,” Eskom said.
South Africa has been experiencing high levels of load-shedding over the past two weeks, which Eskom has attributed to an unprotected protest that began at its power stations on Thursday, 23 June 2022.
Oberholzer said that six of the utility’s power stations were directly impacted by the unprotected protest action, including several units at Arnot, Camden, Duvha, Hendrina, Lethabo, and Matla.
Jan Oberholzer, Eskom chief operating officer
According to Oberholzer, Eskom did not conduct any routine maintenance at these stations during the strike.
He added that the Matla and Duvha power stations were impacted significantly and would require some time to recover. They may also require additional downtime.
The COO went on to explain that Eskom defines capacity losses based on three categories:
- Generators that were limping due to the strike and now need to be taken offline for repairs
- Generator failures, the most common of which are boiler tube leaks
- Generators that face delays in returning to service after breakdowns
Eskom’s CEO Andre de Ruyter stated there was “light at the end of the tunnel” regarding load-shedding as the power utility is working hard to make land available for independent power producers (IPPs).
He said Eskom plans to make 2,000 hectares of land in Mpumalanga available to IPPs by August 2022, adding that the land could support 220MW of renewable generating capacity.
De Ruyter said Eskom had identified portions of land with grid access across the country, with intentions to make an additional 30,000 hectares available over the coming years.
It has identified areas in the Nothern and Eastern Cape, the Free State, and Mpumalanga.
De Ruyter added that Eskom has worked to streamline the protocols surrounding the addition of new IPPs to the grid, halving the time required to complete the process from 210 to 105 days.
Eskom implemented Stage 6 load-shedding on 28 June after worker protests broke out at its power stations.
The protests ended on Tuesday, 5 July, with labour unions accepting Eskom’s 7% pay increase.
However, the power utility said it was forced to use extensive emergency reserves and could not conduct necessary maintenance on its units, meaning load-shedding would likely remain for several weeks.
Eskom will implement Stage 4 power cuts between 05:00 and midnight from Monday to Thursday this week, with intentions to drop it to Stage 3 on Friday.
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