Cape Town – Eskom has suspended employees who were on duty when a generator exploded at its Medupi Power Station on Sunday, August 8, reports say.
According to Times Live, Unit 4 at the plant experienced an explosion, causing extensive damage to the generator.
“The incident occurred during the activity to displace hydrogen with carbon dioxide and air respectively, for the purposes of finding an external leak,” the report quoted Eskom as saying.
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“Following the power station’s preliminary investigation, it appears that while performing this activity air was introduced into the generator at a point where hydrogen was still present in the generator at sufficient quantities to create an explosive mixture, which ignited and resulted in the explosion,” said Eskom’s spokesperson, Sikonathi Mantshantsha as quoted by Fin24.
First pictures of the damage caused by the explosion at #Eskom #Medupi Unit 4 last night: pic.twitter.com/smEVoVMAAn
— Chris Yelland (@chrisyelland) August 9, 2021
No injuries were sustained as a result of the explosion, although emergency services were called in to treat some employees for shock.
“It also appears that there was a deviation from the procedure for carrying out this activity.
“As such Eskom has undertaken to place those employees who were responsible to manage and execute this work under precautionary suspension pending the conclusion of the ‘major event’ investigation,” Eskom said.
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
