Preliminary investigations following an explosion at Eskom’s Matla Power Station in Mpumalanga indicate that the rupture of a high-pressure steam steel pipe above the Unit 6 transformer caused Thursday’s incident.
“Eskom can confirm that preliminary investigations indicate the rupture of a high-pressure steam steel pipe above the Unit 6 transformer caused yesterday evening’s incident. The incident resulted in a loud bang and a loss of power supply to the Unit 6 area,” said the power utility in a statement on Friday.
It further added that significant amounts of dust, combined with the loss of power, prevented a fuller assessment until the first light on Friday.
“Technical teams remain on-site, assessing the extent of the damage, the scope of work, and the time required for repairs and restoration. At this stage, there is no evidence of sabotage,” said the utility.
READ | Transformer explosion leaves nine injured at power station
This as the Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, joined by members of Eskom’s Executive Committee and Board, visited the power station on Friday afternoon to offer support and assistance to the Matla leadership team and employees, including visiting the injured employees.
As a result of the steam leak from the damaged pipe, nine employees sustained burn injuries.
“One is in critical condition, and two are in semi-critical condition, but all remain stable. Six employees received less serious injuries, with two already discharged from the hospital.”
Additionally, eight members of the work team were uninjured and sent home. They, along with the next of kin of the injured and the Matla Power Station staff, received counselling and support at the start of shifts.
Meanwhile, the power utility said that the load shedding suspension outlook remains unchanged.
In August, Eskom shared its Summer Outlook, for the period from 01 September 2024 to 31 March 2025 that predicted a likely scenario of a loadshedding-free summer due to structural improvements in the coal-fired fleet. On Friday, Eskom reached 261 consecutive days of load shedding suspension.
As a precautionary measure, Unit 5 was taken offline following the incident to ensure the safety of all employees on-site.
This unit was due to be shut down for planned maintenance on Monday, 16 December 2024. This planned maintenance was brought forward to Saturday, 14 December 2024.
“Our emergency plans were activated accordingly and … the next steps in this plan involve ensuring the injured and their families continue to receive the support and care they need, as well as all our employees at Matla,” said Eskom Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo.
“We now begin a disciplined investigation, and the painstaking work required to develop a thorough, disciplined understanding of the incident that will lead us to be able to plan when the unit can be returned to service,” Nxumalo explained.
“Matla is one of the six power stations we prioritised in the Generation Recovery Plan to end load shedding and over the past 18 months the employees have delivered an exceptional performance, achieving an Energy Availability Factor (EAF) of 67.12%,” said Eskom Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane.
“Based on the structural improvements in the generation performance of the coal fired fleet, week by week Eskom is increasingly able to absorb shocks to the system, even though the generation capacity remains tight. The base case scenario for the summer outlook indicates that there will be no loadshedding if unplanned outages stay at 13 000MW or below and our year-to-date average unplanned outages are at 11 875MW,” concluded Marokane. -SAnews.gov.za
