Eskom delays replacement of Koeberg steam generators to avoid load shedding risk

Eskom has decided to delay the replacement of three steam generators (SGR) at the Koeberg Power Station until next year to avoid the risk of impacting electricity supply and generation capacity.

This was announced by chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer on Friday during an update on the Koeberg Power Station unit 2 outage.

The Koeberg Power Station unit 2 shut down on 18 January 2022, due to a fuelling and maintenance outage, the scope of which included the replacement of the three steam generators on the unit.

Oberholzer said Eskom and the main contractor, Framatome, performed a final review to ensure that the SGR work would be completed at the expected quality levels and in accordance with the outage schedule.

He said the review concluded there is a high likelihood of the unit being returned to the grid later than currently planned for.

“So, we have decided to shift this project out of the replacement of the three steam generators to around about August next year. This is to avoid the risk of impacting electricity supply during the high winter demand and winder period which will start relatively soon, end of April and May.”

Eskom said the deferral does not impact the safe operation of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant or on the power utility’s life extension plan for Koeberg, which requires the replacement of the steam generators on both units.

“Having undergone the regular maintenance refuelling outage, which is under way, Unit 2 of the Koeberg power station will therefore be returned to service during June 2022. This is planned to help reduce the pressure on the rest of the generation capacity and to limit the impact of load shedding.”

The power utility said the safe and reliable operation of the two nuclear units consistently plays a significant part in adding stability to the grid.

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