Medupi conveyor belt snaps – Eskom warns of stage-2 cuts

A conveyor belt at the giant Medupi coal-fired power station snapped on Wednesday night, prompted state-owned power utility Eskom to warn on Thursday morning of a high risk of load shedding.

“Last night, a conveyor belt feeding coal into the Medupi generation units failed, increasing the risk of load shedding. This means the four generation units in service are not able to take in the requisite amount of coal to generate electricity,” Eskom said.

“This puts further strain on Eskom’s ability to fully supply electricity over the next 24 hours.”

Repairing the conveyor belt is expected to take “the better part of the day” and “any further breakdown elsewhere in the generation fleet would necessitate the implementation of stage-2 load shedding at short notice”.  — (c) 2020 NewsCentral Media

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