One of Kusile’s unsynchronized units was damaged in a fire.
A fire damaged one of the generating units at the Kusile power plant that has not yet been synchronized with the grid, Eskom said on Friday.
The fire occurred on 17 September at a gas-fired air heater at Unit 5, which is in the process of commissioning.
The power company said that while its fire protection systems extinguished the fire, inspections showed “significant damage”.
Eskom said he was inspecting the damage to determine what needs to be repaired. At the same time, he is trying to determine what caused the fire.
“All efforts are being made to expedite the repair of the [gas air heater] to enable the unit’s commissioning progress and synchronization with the national grid, ”said Eskom.
“At this time the duration of the repair is speculative and based on the experience of the utility, the actual duration will be determined once the scope of the work is finalized.”
Kusile, who is years behind and billions of rand over budget, will have 6 generation units when completed. Each unit is set to generate 800 MW, for a total of 4 800 MW.
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