Eskom’s’ plan to “fast-track” repairs on its troublesome Kusile power station’s three offline generators will involve installing temporary flues. The first unit will take more than eight months to complete.

The second and third units will take an additional month each to be returned to the grid.

However, this is subject to approval from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE), for which the power utility is still waiting.

MyBroadband asked Eskom, The Presidency, and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) about the plan following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2023 State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“The plan entails the option of temporary flues for the units, which has been investigated to fast-track the return to service of units 1, 2 & 3,” Eskom told MyBroadband.

The power utility said it is awaiting approval from the DFFE on its application to install temporary flues. It submitted the application on Thursday, 2 March 2023.

“It must be noted that Concor has been appointed as the main contractor for the west chimney repairs, including the fast-track plan,” Eskom added.

The state-owned utility expects Kusile’s unit 1 generator to return to service eight months after it receives approval to proceed with the project.

“The current plan indicates that the first unit will be available eight months after the MES approval with the second & third units one month after each other,” it said.

While Eskom didn’t say how much the repairs would amount to, it said the costs involved would relate to the design, procurement, fabrication, and installation of the temporary stacks.

The Presidency and DMRE did not respond to our requests for comment.

Ramaphosa mentioned the plan to “fast-track” the return to service of Kusile’s unit one, two, and three generators during SONA 2023.

“Eskom is urgently fast-tracking construction of a temporary solution to bring back three units at Kusile power station following the collapse of a chimney stack last year, whilst simultaneously repairing the permanent structure,” he said.

The chimney duct collapsed in October 2022, contributing approximately two stages to Eskom’s rotational power cuts.

It isn’t exactly clear whether the eight-to-ten-month timeframe is an improvement over previous estimates, with various sources giving a range of expected restoration times.

During a media briefing in November 2022, then-Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said it would take no less than six months for repairs to be completed.

However, Mail & Guardian and News24, in January 2023, reported that the temporary fix would take at least a year to construct.

Citing a senior source at Eskom, Mail & Guardian reported that there is no real quick fix for the flue duct as the power utility doesn’t have the equipment to hold the chimney upright.

“The temporary solution will take at least 12 months to build. Importing a ready material that will hold the chimney would be too expensive, and we can’t afford it at this time,” its source said.

The other option would be to repair the existing chimney stack.

However, News24 reported that this could take two years to complete if time is allowed for the tender process, contract conclusion, and mobilisation of resources.

Eskom managers blamed for collapse

In February 2023, an internal report by Eskom’s assurance and forensics department revealed that the power utility’s managers went against the advice of engineers, resulting in the chimney’s collapse.

Eskom managers issued an instruction to ramp up Kusile’s unit one generator to full capacity, contrary to the advice of the power utility’s engineers.

It is alleged that “unnamed bosses” at Megawatt Park gave verbal instructions to return the unit to service and ramp its generation up to 800MW — its maximum load — even though a faulty component was causing a cement-like sludge to build up inside the chimney.

This resulted in the collapse of the flue-gas duct, taking the unit one generator offline and damaging Kusile units two and three in the process. They, too, had to be taken offline to conduct repairs.

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter offered a different perspective during an interview on E-tv’s My Guest Tonight with Annika Larsen. He said the flue-gas duct collapsed due to Hitachi boilers that aren’t compatible for use at Kusile.

He alleged that they were installed through a tender that was awarded through corrupt means.