Eskom warns of glitch at Koeberg

Cape Town - Eskom warned on Sunday that the power system may be vulnerable overnight after Unit 1 of the Koeberg power station unexpectedly went out of service.

The unit was scheduled to go on a planned refuelling, inspection and maintenance outage on February 9.

"Unit 1 of the Koeberg power station is currently out of service due to a technical fault on the main generator transformer at the power station, which resulted in the unit being isolated from the national grid," Eskom said in a statement.

The state power utility said its engineers are on site to determine the root cause of the fault. The nuclear reactor is not affected by the fault.

"The maintenance team will determine if the unit can be brought back in the next few days or be taken out for its planned maintenance earlier than scheduled.
"Koeberg Unit 2 is currently generating full power and there is no nuclear safety concern for both units 1 and 2. Each unit contributes 930MW to the national power grid."

Eskom said although the system remains stable it may be vulnerable overnight.

#Koeberg: Our engineers are currently on site to determine the root cause of the fault. The nuclear reactor is not affected by the fault.

— Eskom Media Desk (@Eskom_MediaDesk) February 1, 2015

The government and Eskom will give an update on progress at Koeberg and the general state of the power system on Monday morning.