BUSINESS NEWS - Despite the ever-present threat of load shedding, Eskom staff recently made a huge mistake that almost resulted in the loss of the 970 megawatt (MW) unit 1 at the Koeberg nuclear power station.
The generation capacity is virtually equal to one stage of load shedding.
This “significant incident” came while unit 2 at Koeberg is unavailable for power generation after it was taken offline on January 18 for refuelling and maintenance. It is due to return to service in June.
According to an internal Koeberg newsletter “an individual” who was doing maintenance on unit 2 cut a valve of unit 1 instead of unit 2.
‘Significant event’
“In the light of this, we have had to implement a work stop following a significant event, which could have resulted in us losing the running unit,” the newsletter states.
Daily Maverick picked this up and published the relevant page on Thursday. Eskom has confirmed the authenticity of the newsletter.
The newsletter further discloses that this is the second time this has happened. “This speaks to very poor human performance, and it is an unacceptable practice,” it states.
It implies that there is no excuse for such a mistake: “We are equipped with the relevant training to correctly identify the unit and component we are tasked to work on,” and cautions staff to read the signage.
This near-miss is the latest in a string of Eskom blunders that are costing money and megawatts.
