The explosion in the station’s number four unit reportedly blew both ends off the generator and destroyed it.
The loss of 700MW of power from the unit would not, on its own, result in load-shedding, Mantshantsha said.
“Following the power station’s preliminary investigation, it appears that while performing this activity, air was introduced into the generator at a point when hydrogen was still present in sufficient quantities to create an explosive mixture, which ignited and resulted in the explosion,” Mantshantsha said.
Trade union Solidarity said some of its members were among the suspended employees. The union agreed with Eskom that the explosion was not due to sabotage, as some reports have speculated.With a designed generating capacity of 4,764 MW — making it the eighth-largest coal-fired power station in the world — Medupi was built to relieve some of the strain on the power utility’s ageing coal-fired “six packs”.
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