State-owned power utility Eskom on Thursday reported that the 900 MW Unit 2 at the Koeberg nuclear power station, in the Western Cape, was currently being returned to service and was almost at full capacity, following a two-month scheduled shutdown for refuelling, inspection and maintenance.

In its biweekly status bulletin Eskom also reported that it had lost 200 MW of power on Wednesday when one of the units at its Grootvlei power station, in Mpumalanga, caught fire.

Eskom said that the Grootvlei emergency response team had reacted swiftly and extinguished the fire before it could cause severe damage to the unit; however, the unit would be kept off-load until the root cause of the incident had been identified and repairs effected.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s power system was stable; however, it would remain tight over the evening peak periods for the next few days, owing to higher demand as a result of colder weather conditions.

The capacity available to meet Thursday evening’s peak demand was 35 500 MW, including open-cycle gas turbines, while demand was forecast at 34 395 MW. Current planned maintenance stood at 2 300 MW, while unplanned outages were 4 100 MW.

The peak demand for the next week was forecast at 32 384 MW on Friday, 31 238 MW on Saturday, 31 533 MW on Sunday, 34 262 MW on Monday, 34 269 MW on Tuesday and 34 229 MW on Wednesday.

The utility also confirmed that it was continuing with its planned maintenance schedule and was scaling it down to prepare for winter, while also managing unplanned outages that added more pressure on an already tight system.

“Eskom continues to make progress with its programme of planned maintenance but the system remains tight,” Eskom said, urging users to save at least 10% of their electricity use.