Majuba silo design to blame for collapse, says Eskom
A design flaw resulted in the collapse of Mpumalanga’s Majuba power station’s coal storage silo last year, resulting in widespread load shedding, Eskom executives said on Monday.
“The investigation has been concluded which shows there was a flaw in the design of the silo. American design standards were used, which were of much lower standards compared to now,” CEO Brian Molefe told reporters at a briefing in Johannesburg.
“Designs for the permanent solution has been completed, and these include the re-instatement of the damaged silo and associated coal conveyor system.”
An interim solution, which included a constructed temporary conveyer belt to ferry coal was established, he said.
“The use of trucks to transport coal has been curtailed from an average 1 060 trucks before implementation of interim solution to an average 90 trucks.”
Head of capital, Abram Mashego, said there was no negligence by contractors.
“There is no negligence on contractors as they did as per the design. The design codes applied at the time did not match the conditions of the silo… the issue was the design,” he said.
The silo at Majuba collapsed in November last year, and resulted in reduced power output, forcing the power utility to implement load shedding daily across the country.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation