Eskom gets generator upgrade
10-YEAR WAIT: Six new generators at Koeberg
Eskom this week celebrated the arrival of its long-awaited replacement steam generators at its Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.
The power utility said the six new steam generators arrived at its power plant on Tuesday, after a decade-long wait.
Eskom said this was a culmination of “exceptional teamwork and collaboration and a milestone for Africa’s only nuclear power station”.
Each steam generator weighs approximately 380 tons and spans about 20m.
The first three generators are set to be installed between February and June 2021.
The generators were transported 40km by road from the Cape Town Harbour, and it took eight hours per generator.
The trailer used to transport the generators is the longest in South Africa.
At 42m long, it requires four trucks during each trip.
A replacement steam generator facility has been constructed to house the steam generators until the old generators are removed during the plant’s next outage.
The replacement has been scheduled into the Koeberg outage plan and generation plan.
The generators, which were approved in 2010 by the Eskom board, are to extend the power station’s life by 20 years, and will replace the current ones that were installed in 1984.
“The steam generator replacement is a key part of the larger programme to extend Koeberg’s operating life, which was budgeted to cost an estimated R20 billion and will be the best investment into sustainable and less carbon-intensive electricity generation infrastructure that Eskom can buy,” the power utility said.
According to Eskom, a steam generator replacement is the most intensive and expensive project a nuclear power station can undergo.
The old generators will be disposed of.