/ 14 August 2008

Koeberg’s unit two returns to service

Unit two of the Koeberg nuclear power station has been synchronised to the national electricity grid and has commenced generating electricity, Eskom said on Thursday.

“Repairs to the Koeberg unit have been successfully concluded and the unit is now generating to meet the nation’s electricity requirements,” said Brian Dames, Eskom’s chief officer for the generation business.

The company said the unit was operating at 63% of its capacity, sending out 569MW to the national electricity grid, with the full operating load of 900MW expected on Friday.

The underlying problem of the inadequate reserve margin between available generation capacity and demand would continue until the benefits of its expansion programme were available, Eskom said. — I-Net Bridge