De Ruyter gives Matla power station fire damage report

3 years ago 3

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Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says that a fire at the utility’s Matla power station outside the town of Kriel in Mpumalanga did not cause serious damage.

Several videos circulating on social media showed a large plume of black smoke rising from the power station on Wednesday, suggesting a large fire had engulfed one of its units.

Reports indicated the fire was isolated and extinguished by the evening.

De Ruyter stepped in to answer the question about the Matla fire because Eskom’s acting head of generation, Thomas Conradie, had left the media briefing.

Aubrey Sambo, a senior writer in Eskom’s communications department, informed attendees Conradie had to “attend to an urgent matter.”

De Ruyter said the damage to the unit was not as substantial as it appeared.

During a press conference on Thursday concerning his recent resignation announcement, the outgoing CEO explained a fire broke out outside Unit 6’s boiler on the fuel oil dispensing system.

“The damage to the unit is not severe — it’s mainly cabling, there is no structural damage — and our teams are hard at work to the return to service,” De Ruyter said.

However, he could not give a timeline for the unit to be restored.

De Ruyter added that there was no indication of foul play in the incident at this stage, but that the utility would fully investigate to confirm this.

Each of the Matla Power Station’s six units can produce a maximum capacity of 600MW, close to about half a stage of load-shedding.

According to Eskom’s website, the power station is one of its most reliable, with an average availability of 93.84% over the past three years.

Fires have previously broken out at Eskom’s Kendal and Duvha power stations, but MyBroadband could not find any record of similar incidents at Matla.