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During the early hours of this morning there were two electrical faults in quick succession in the high voltage yard at Kriel Power Station. The fault, which appears to be related to the heavy mist conditions experienced at the time, is under investigation. The first fault caused units 1, 2 and 3 of the power station to trip, while the second fault tripped units 4 and 5. Unit 6 was offline at the time.

The incident removed more than 2 000MW of generation capacity from the network. 

While some generation units at other power stations are expected to return to service during the day, these will take time to load to full capacity. Should there be any further loss of generation capacity during the day, or some units fail to return to service as anticipated, loadshedding may be required to be implemented at short notice. 

We currently have 1 018MW on planned maintenance, while another 17 022MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns. Eskom’s teams are working hard to return as many of the units to service as possible. 

Eskom would like to remind the public that loadshedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid. We therefore urge all South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly especially during these uncertain times on the power system.

Eskom will communicate promptly should the necessity arise.

Issued by Eskom