Technical fault at Koeberg power station

A unit at the Koeberg power station is currently out of service due to a technical fault on the main generator transformer, power utility Eskom said in a statement on Sunday night.



Unit 1 was isolated from the national grid and engineers have been working constantly on site in an effort to determine the root cause of the fault.



A spokesman said the nuclear reactor was not affected by the fault.



“Unit 1 was scheduled to go on a planned refuelling, inspection and maintenance outage on February 9,” reads the statement. “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 in January instituted load shedding saying the power system in the country was under pressure. This situation remains unchanged as the power utility continues to call on South Africans to use power sparingly.