Explosion at Eskom power station

Eskom has revealed that a transformer explosion occurred at Matla power station in Mpumalanga at 17:00 on Thursday, with initial reports indicating that nine employees were injured, with one in critical condition.

The explosion affected Matla Unit 6. As a precautionary measure, Unit 5 was taken offline to ensure the safety of all employees and contractors on-site.

“Our first thoughts are with those who have been injured and we are ensuring they get the medical attention they need. All emergency protocols have been activated,” said Eskom Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo.

“Our technical teams are on-site assessing the situation and will continue to do so throughout the evening and into tomorrow.”

Load-shedding remains suspended and Eskom said it would issue regular update reports.

Matla Unit 6 suffered a fire almost exactly two years ago, in December 2022.

Eskom said at the time that a fire had broken out outside Unit 6’s boiler on the fuel oil dispensing system.

It said the damage to the unit was not severe, as it was mainly cabling that had been burnt and that there was no structural damage.

Each of the Matla power station’s six units can produce a maximum capacity of 600MW, close to about half a stage of load-shedding.

According to Eskom’s website, Matla is one of its most reliable with an average availability of over 90% over the past three years.