THE explosion of a unit at power utility Eskom’s Medupi power station would cost “billions to fix” and remove 797MW from the South African national grid at a time when there was “very little reserve margin”.
This is according to a post on Twitter by Anton Eberhard, a professor at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, which was published by Bloomberg News. In its article, Bloomberg News said the explosion of Unit 4 at Medupi on August 8 would result in a year of “record power outages” this year.
Blackouts through the first half of 2021 were equivalent to about 70% of last year’s unprecedented outages, said the newswire citing data from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
Eskom told Bloomberg News that it didn’t know how much it would cost and how long it would take to repair the Medupi unit. No injuries were reported as a result of the explosion, but seven employees required treatment for shock, said Eskom on Monday.
The utility said that Unit 4 had been on short-term outage since August 6 when the incident occurred. Work on the unit was suspended with immediate effect.
“The area was secured and once it has been cleared by the fire chief and resident engineers; inspections and assessments will begin to determine the cause of the incident and extent of the damage caused,” it said.
Eskom said on August 2 that the sixth and final unit at Medupi had begun commercial supply of electricity to the national grid bringing to an end a project delayed by years and costing well beyond the initial R80bn project capital imputed to it.
