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JOHANNESBURG, Jan 30 (Reuters) - South Africa’s state power utility Eskom [ESCJ.UL] said on Friday it had shut down a unit at its Koeberg nuclear power plant earlier in the week for refuelling, maintenance and upgrading.
Eskom said the refuelling process was expected to be completed in May 2009.
“During this period, when Koeberg Unit 1 is not generating electricity, the Cape will be supplied from Koeberg Unit 2 and the transmission transfers from power stations in the north of the country,” it said in a statement.
Eskom has been rationing electricity since the national grid nearly collapsed in January last year. Mines and some smelters have since been receiving about 90 to 95 percent of their power requirements.
Eskom said last week South Africa’s power supply had improved compared to a year ago, but warned the power system was still vulnerable.
The utility said on Friday the major outage at the Koeberg unit had been planned for, and the duration had been factored into the overall generating maintenance plans for all of Eskom’s power stations.
Eskom plans to spend a total of about 343 billion rand ($34.33 billion) over five years on new power plants. (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa)
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