AS ESKOM fights to keep South Africa’s lights on, another power station is on the verge of collapse. Vital sections of the Lethabo power station, which contributes nearly 10% to the national energy grid, are buried beneath tons of ash. The near-collapse of the power station has been a month coming, with staff sounding warnings of impending critical equipment failures. But the warnings appear to have been ignored, resulting in conveyor belts used to transport ash from the plant’s collection facilities, known as hoppers, failing at the weekend. The failure, which has seen two out of six power generating units unable to function, is the second malfunction at the plant. The other involves a highly toxic acid leak from the spillage catchment system. This is yet to be fixed and fears are mounting that the acid could find its way into the underground water system. This is the latest in a string of problems being experienced by the power utility. Earlier this month, it was revealed that a silo collapsed at Majuba power stations. In addition, several generators were out of use due to planned and unplanned maintenance. Two weeks ago, Eskom management was forced to institute load-shedding as the national grid came under increasing pressure. Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona said two days ago that Eskom’s problems were not because of bad management or poor maintenance, but were all unrelated and “random incidents that we cannot predict”. But a Lathabo plant insider said yesterday that management had been warned about the conveyor belt failures and other things, including impending chemical spills at the plant. “It is a disaster. The plant is falling apart. “Months ago, they were told it was dire. Warnings were ignored. “On Saturday, unit two and three failed. They tripped because the ash from the hoppers could not be emptied out quick enough.” He said the ash build-up was huge, especially inside the plant. “Vital equipment is covered beneath tons of ash. The emergency ash collection area is overflowing beyond legal limits. “The situation is so bad that at night ash is being blown out above the legal limits to try to get rid of as much as possible. “Tons of ash is blowing over Sasolburg and Denysville and their informal settlements.” A Denysville clinic nursing sister said there had been an increase in people with respiratory problems – on average 10 a day. “We thought it was a change in seasons, but it is not.” Eskom spokesman Sipho Neke confirmed the failure of the ash plant equipment. “This resulted in significant ash backlog on the precipitator hoppers – filters that remove dust – of all six units.” Another unit was offline for repairs, while production from the other units was reduced to lower emissions. “It is not known how long it will take to restore the units to operational level,” he said. Neke said the conveyor belt breakdown was not an isolated case. Besides the unreliability of ash plant equipment, he also blamed the downtime on lightning activity. He said maintenance teams were continuously repairing failures as they occurred but had fallen behind, causing the ash backlog. On the chemical spills, he said the leaks first had to be repaired before containment was done. - Graeme Hosken heraldlive.co.za/another-key-eskom-plant-falling-apart/
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 10:55:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015