Eskom has confirmed that nine of its employees stationed at Matla Power Station in Mpumalanga are critically injured following a transformer explosion.

CAUGHT OFF GUARD

According to Eskom Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo, the explosion occurred at 5pm yesterday and affected the station's unit 6. He said as a precautionary measure, unit 5 was taken offline to ensure the safety of all employees and contractors on-site. "Our first thoughts are with those who have been injured and we are ensuring they get the medical attention they need. All emergency protocols have been activated," said Nxumalo. He added that the power utility's technical teams are on-site assessing the situation and will continue to do so. "The suspension of load shedding remains unchanged. Eskom will issue regular update reports."

SECOND INCIDENT

On Sunday, 3 November, Unit 6 at Kriel Power Station experienced a fire and explosion after a broken oil pipe spilt oil onto the turbine's hot surfaces. "The fire occurred at around 5:04 PM when Unit 6 lost hydraulic oil to the turbine valves. The fire blew off the turbine housing roof. However, the incident did not impact the power supply or cause load shedding because the station's fire and emergency team quickly extinguished the fire and no personnel were injured," explained Nxumalo.