Africa-Press – South-Africa. A fire at Eskom’s Grootvlei power station has put unit 2 out of action for now, but the damage is not extensive, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokoena said on Saturday.
Grootvlei is one of Eskom’s oldest power stations and has only three commissioned units. Before the fire, unit 2 was the only one of the three in operation. It had a capacity of 190MW but was operating below this.
One of the other units that had been out on maintenance returned to service on Saturday said Mokoena.
She said initial indications were that an oil spill in the boiler room had ignited, damaging cables. The fire broke out in the early morning hours and was extinguished.
NUM Highveld Regional Secretary Thapelo Malekutu also confirmed the fire but said information the union had received was that excess coal dust in the boiler room had ignited.
Eskom has not revised the load-shedding outlook for the weekend, which remains on Stage 4, with Stage 2 kicking in at 5am on Sunday.
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