State-owned power utility Eskom on Wednesday said its Lethabo power station, in the Free State, was experiencing “very high emissions” on four of its six units as a result of the failure of ash plant equipment. 

The utility explained that the failure of equipment used for moving ash to the ash dump had resulted in significant fly ash backlogs on the precipitator hoppers of all six of the power station’s units, which made them less effective and led to higher-than-normal emissions.

“We have managed to restore precipitator hoppers on two of the six units, with steady progress being seen at two other units,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eskom added that Lethabo’s Unit 5 had been taken off load for repairs, while production from the other units had also been reduced to lower the emission levels in line with the power station’s atmospheric emission licence conditions.

“Dedicated teams are on site and working around the clock to restore the precipitator performance and reduce the emissions. However, some of the precipitator fields have internal damage, which will require the unit to be shut down for repair work to take place,” Eskom said, adding that this work would take some time to complete.