Power utility company Eskom said the employees involved in work at Unit 4 of its Medupi power plant, whose generator exploded on Sunday night, had been placed under precautionary suspension pending the conclusion of an investigation.
Eskom said the incident occurred during work to displace hydrogen with carbon dioxide and air respectively, in order to find an external leak.
“Following the power station preliminary investigation, it appears that while performing this activity air was introduced into the generator at a point where hydrogen was still present in the generator at sufficient quantities to create an explosive mixture, which ignited and resulted in the explosion,” the utility said.
“It also appears that there was a deviation from the procedure for carrying out this activity. As such Eskom has undertaken to place those employees who were responsible to manage and execute this work under precautionary suspension pending the conclusion of the major event investigation.”
The company said the explosion had resulted in extensive damage to the generator, but there were no injuries sustained by personnel on site.
Speaking on Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the incident was not likely to lead to loadshedding because the unit had already been out for scheduled maintenance.
Since the start of the year, South Africa has experienced 650 hours of rolling blackouts by Eskom, which supplies about 95 percent of the country’s energy needs.
This means the country spent 15% of the time in darkness for the first part of 2021.