South African power utility Eskom on Wednesday said a transformer explosion on unit 8 of the Camden Power Station near Ermelo in Mpumalanga happened due to an internal fault in its facility.
Eskom’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said they didn’t foresee any power supply disruptions following the incident.
“The unit produces approximately 190 megawatts. The fire has been contained and no injuries have been reported. An investigation to determine the cause, the extent of the damage, and the possible return to service is underway.”
Energy analyst and consultant Chris Yelland confrimed that the fire after the fault on Camden Unit 8 generator transformer has been contained. He added that “A specialist will assess the damage & cause. Units 7 & 8 are shutdown. Unit 7 is shut down to protect its transformer from flashover due to water sprayed on the Unit 8 transformer”.
Eskom has suffered a number of setbacks, last month its towers collapsed due to deliberate destruction by saboteurs.
Fires that broke out at Kendal in February 2021, in August 2021, a massive explosion destroyed a generator at Medupi Unit 4, cutting around 700MW of supply from the grid. Then again in September 2021 disrupted operations and resulted in units going offline, dropping available capacity at the time.
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter previously said repairs on that unit will take around two years and cost R2 billion. The company said the Bighorn Pluto Tower in Marikana collapsed due to vandalism and theft.
It warned the public to avoid removing tower members and other equipment from the electricity structures, and to steer clear from the area. It has also been over three weeks that South Africans last had load shedding.
