Eskom Shuts Down Koeberg Nuclear Unit After Technical Fault

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Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) — Eskom Holdings Ltd., South Africa’s state-owned power utility, shut down one of its two units at the Koeberg nuclear plant because of a technical fault.

Repairs to the unit will take two weeks to complete, the Johannesburg-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. The shutdown “increases the vulnerability” of Eskom’s power system because the utility has also begun its maintenance period for other power plants, it added.

Eskom will increase the use of its two open-cycle gas- turbine stations in Western Cape province to help mitigate the effect of the shutdown, it said. The utility will also increase use of the hydro and pump storage units and buy back power from large industrial customers, it added.

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