Issues at Medupi, Kendal has cost Eskom 10% of capacity – expert
Unit 1 at Eskom’s Kendal Power Station tripped after the generator transformer caught on fire on Saturday, causing the shutdown of two other units.
Energy expert Ted Blom says the Eskom has lost about 10% of their output capacity due to the unit tripping and the August explosion at Medupi Power station.
“We lost about 680 megawatts from the fire of the transformer of Unit 1 at Kendall, at the same time it also impacted on Units 2 and 3, that’s another 1 300 megawatts, the total shortfall from Kendal Power Station at the moment is just on 2000 megawatts.
“If we add to the disaster at Medupi Unit 4 which blew up, as of Sunday we’re sitting with a short fall of 2800 megawatts and that is a disaster for Eskom as it’s about 10% of their output capacity.”
Blom says if the other affected units can be brought back online there will be a lesser risk of load shedding.
“I expect that units 2 and 3 at Kendal, if they haven’t been damaged could be brought back online during the course of the week which could lower the risk of load shedding. But going forward this is quite a disaster, so full forensic needs to be done at unit 1 at Kendal and it could take a year to replace.”
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