Eskom reveals power station explosion details

Eskom’s preliminary investigations indicate the rupture of a high-pressure steam steel pipe caused the explosion of Matla Power Station Unit 6’s transformer on Thursday, 12 December 2024.

Eskom said the incident resulted in a loud bang and a loss of power supply to the Unit 6 area.

“Significant amounts of dust, combined with the loss of power, prevented a fuller assessment until the first light this morning [Friday, 13 December 2024],” Eskom said.

“Technical teams remain on-site, assessing the extent of the damage, the scope of work, and the time required for repairs and restoration.”

Nine employees sustained burn injuries due to the leaking steam.

Eskom said that one of these employees was in acritical condition, and two in a semi-critical condition, but all remained stable.

“Six employees received less serious injuries, with two already discharged from the hospital,” it added.

Another eight members of the work team were uninjured and sent home.

“They, along with the next of kin of the injured and the Matla Power Station staff, received counselling and support at the start of shifts,” Eskom said.

Eskom generation head Bheki Nxumalo said the power utility would begin a disciplined investigation and “painstaking” work to develop a thorough, disciplined understanding of the incident.

That will enable the utility to plan for Unit 6’s return to service.

“Eskom will issue further updates as the investigation progresses,” the power utility stated.

Electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and members of Eskom’s executive committee and board visited the power station on Friday afternoon to offer support to the Matla Power Station leadership team and employees.

In addition to Unit 6’s shutdown, Eskom took Unit 5 offline following to ensure the safety of all employees on site.

Eskom said the the unit was due to be shut down for planned maintenance on Monday, 16 December 2024 but this was moved forward to Saturday, 14 December 2024, following the incident.

Matla Unit 5 and Unit 6 each have maximum capacities of 600MW, although it is unclear how much of this was still in regular operation at the time of the explosion considering the power station’s age.

Matla is one of the six power stations Eskom prioritised in its Generation Recovery Plan to end load-shedding.

Eskom said its Summer Outlook, which predicted a likely scenario of a load-shedding-free summer, remained in place.

Eskom CEO Dan Marokane explained the power station’s employees had delivered an exceptional performance over the past 18 months, helping push the station’s Energy Availability Factor to 67.12%.

“Based on the structural improvements in the generation performance of the coal-fired fleet, week by week Eskom is increasingly able to absorb shocks to the system, even though the generation capacity remains tight.”

“The base case scenario for the summer outlook indicates that there will be no load-shedding if unplanned outages stay at 13,000MW or below and our year-to-date average unplanned outages are at 11,875MW.”