Pretoria - Eskom has warned that a unit which burst into flames last night at Eskom's Duvha Power Station during a routine test will take extensive time to repair.
Eskom spokesperson Hilary Joffe said Unit 4 of Eskom's Duvha Power Station was damaged last night in the course of a routine test.
"No one was injured but the unit is expected to take extensive time to repair," she said.
Joffe said the other five units of the 3 600 MW Duvha power station were running normally and the national grid remains in 'green' status, meaning that Eskom is generating enough power to satisfy the demand in the national grid.
The incident happened when the 600 MW units at Duvha had been taken off load to perform a required turbine test.
"This is a statutory test that is carried out in every power station. In the execution of the test, the protection of the unit failed, causing severe mechanical damage and starting a fire, which was brought rapidly under control by the power station's fire team," said Joffe.
Eskom have since launched a technical review of the incident.
Eskom's divisional executive for generation, Thava Govender, said: "The technical review is aimed at finding the cause of the unit failure, so that we may take appropriate action to prevent similar incidents in future."
