Photo by: Duane Daws
Unit 1 of the Koeberg power station, in the Western Cape, was returned to service on Monday after a statutory three-month refuelling and maintenance programme.
The unit, which would ramp up from 200 MW to its full 900 MW capacity over the next few days, was expected to help further stabilise the power system ahead of the start of the cold peak periods this winter.
Unit 1 had been on a planned maintenance and refuelling programme since February, but the mid-May return-to-service deadline had slipped to June 1.
“This was a big outage for Koeberg, with probably the biggest maintenance scope of work ever undertaken at the station, reflecting the typical approach for a plant at this stage of its life. The scheduled shutdown of Koeberg Unit 1 was part of Eskom’s overall maintenance programme for its fleet of power stations.
“Every 16 to 18 months, each of the two units at Koeberg is shut down for refuelling, inspection and maintenance. The routine shutdowns are scheduled so as to avoid having both units out of service at the same time and to avoid the winter months in each year,” Eskom acting CE Brian Molefe said in a statement on Tuesday.