Koeberg Unit 2 to be taken offline for planned maintenance

31 August 2015

Koeberg Unit 2 is scheduled to enter into a refuelling and maintenance outage on Monday, 31 August 2015 and is expected to return back to service mid-December 2015.

The scheduled shutdown of Koeberg Unit 2 is part of Eskom’s overall maintenance programme for its fleet of power stations. Every 14 to 18 months, each of the two units at Koeberg is shut down for refuelling, inspection and maintenance. The routine shutdowns are scheduled so as to avoid having both units out of service at the same time and to avoid the winter months in each year.

During these routine planned outages, one third of the used nuclear fuel is replaced with new fuel. Statutory inspections and maintenance is performed, and modifications, that will ensure that international safety standards continue to be met or that improve the plant performance, are implemented.

Koeberg Unit 2 has been on stream without any interruption since its last refuelling outage which was completed in May 2014. Additionally, Koeberg Unit 1 is currently operating optimally and is contributing 930MW to the national grid.

Medupi Unit 6, which became fully operational last week, together with other units from Eskom’s fleet of 27 power stations, will continue to be used to meet the country’s electricity needs.

Eskom calls on all South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly in order to reduce the risk of load shedding. Businesses and households can make a difference by implementing saving measures in their processes and daily lives. Eskom implements load shedding as a last resort to protect the grid, shedding only what is required to balance demand and supply.

We are implementing our maintenance plan to increase the reliability of our plant, which will in turn increase our operating reserves and stabilise the grid.