The major failure at Duvha power station in Mpumalanga was caused by operator error, Eskom said on Wednesday.
“The direct cause of the incident is attributed to an operating error, in that the operator did not follow the set procedure while undertaking (a) test,” CEO Brian Dames said at the release of Eskom's interim results in Joburg.
The investigation was conducted by a team of independent experts appointed by the insurers.
They found the root cause of the failure was a modification of the electro-hydraulic governor controller done in 2004 while the direct cause was operator error.
Action was being taken, he said.
Dames said Eskom was focused on getting the station back up and running, and was in the final stages of procuring spare parts.
“Unit 4 of the Duvha power station, which was damaged in the course of a statutory turbine overspeed test in February, was expected to be back in service in mid-2012.”
The trouble at Duvha would take 575MW out of the system for more than a year, Eskom said previously.
The insurers had agreed to settle the claim so it would not impact Eskom's financial position.
“Eskom is taking comprehensive action to address the findings of the report,” Dames said.
Duvha was a major setback in an already tight supply system.
He warned that electricity supply would continue to be critical for the next two years.
“We are now in maintenance season and we normally take advantage of low demand (to do maintenance) but these days South Africans all have air conditioners so demand is not that low any more,” he said.
Eskom still had a critical maintenance backlog and this could not be put off for much longer.
“We are concerned about summer and are urging all our customers to work with us and save electricity,” Dames said. – Sapa