- Eskom confirms fire outbreak at Medupi plant
- Says the Unit 4 generator was damaged
- Suspends all work permits on the plant till further notice
Eskom, in a statement, has confirmed the explosion at the recently commissioned Medupi power plant. According to a statement issued by the South African state-owned utility, an explosion occurred at the power plant damaging the station’s Unit 4 generator on Sunday.
”The incident occurred during the activity to displace hydrogen with carbon dioxide and air respectively, for the purposes of finding an external leak. Following the power station preliminary investigation, it appears that while performing this activity, air was introduced into the generator at a point where hydrogen was still present in the generator at sufficient quantities to create an explosive mixture, which ignited and resulted in the explosion.” the statement read.
Eskom, however, noted that there was a deviation from procedures at the plant and the employees responsible had been placed under precautionary suspension. ”It also appears that there was a deviation from the procedure for carrying out this activity,” Eskom said. No lives were lost in the incident.
The damaged Unit 4 generator was on a short term outage when the incident occurred. As a result, Eskom has halted all work permits at the station till further notice. Investigations are underway to ascertain the cause of the explosion.