Load-shedding unlikely after blaze at Majuba, but it may take up to 2 months to repair damage, says expert

The Majuba power plant in Mpumalanga, at which a huge fire broke out on Wednesday, will take up to two months to restore, an energy expert said.

Eskom said in a statement that the blaze started at about 3pm, but was extinguished “swiftly”.

It said the fire broke out on the incline conveyor belt system from the rail offloading facility, adding that it affected coal delivery to the Majuba station.

The embattled power utility said the station had 50 days' worth of coal on hand. Therefore, the fire did not affect the output of the plant.

“We don’t foresee that this will result in load-shedding,” energy expert Chris Yelland said.

In a statement issued at 8am on Thursday, Eskom said it did not foresee loadshedding during the day, thanks to the return of some generating units to service and a reduced demand for electricity over the holiday season.

Yelland said depending on the extent of the structural steel damage, it would take about a month or two to restore.  

He said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire.

Eskom said a forensic investigation was under way to determine the cause of the fire.

"The incident does impact on our coal delivery to Majuba Power Station, which was primarily done via rail. We will use road delivery to offset the absence of rail transportation for the duration of the recovery of the damaged infrastructure," its statement read. "Majuba Power Station’s coal stock is healthy at over 50 days of stock. We expect that the reclamation from the coal stock and road delivery will be adequate to sustain Majuba burn."

"We will have to wait for the facility to cool down in order to start a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the fire. Once it is safe, the investigation will commence."