Power utility Eskom has decided to delay the start of the planned maintenance shutdown of Koeberg Unit 1 to allow time to stabilise the power system and recover some generation capacity.
The unit has been online for 407 days since its last outage and the utility now plans to start the refuelling and maintenance outage on December 10 if grid conditions have recovered to ensure stability of the system.
“While Eskom is ready to commence with the outage, with the contractors and all the requisite resources on standby, grid stability is an important consideration prior to shutting down the Unit 1 reactor to commence the maintenance and refuelling outage.
“This is going to be a long but necessary outage – the first of its kind for Koeberg. Eskom has taken care to ensure no undue delays are experienced once the project gets under way,” says Eskom acting chief nuclear officer Sadika Touffie.
The outage is expected to last for about six months and Eskom warns that the extended unavailability of the unit will put additional strain on the electricity supply system.