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Blackout: Koeberg to blame
11/11/2005 20:40 - (SA)
Cape Town - A power failure at the Koeberg nuclear power station cut the electricity supply to the Cape Town city centre at 14:00 on Friday, an Eskom spokesperson said.
"Koeberg nuclear power station is not generating electricity currently," Trish da Silva said at 16:00.
Central Cape Town fire department was kept busy freeing people from lifts and extinguishing several small fires caused by emergency generators burning out, said official Craig Cysper. No one was injured.
Robots in the city stopped functioning and traffic officers were posted at a number of intersections to deal with rush-hour traffic as people left their offices early. High-rise buildings were in darkness.
Koeberg's Unit One was out for repairs on Friday and its Unit Two tripped, said Da Silva. "Their reactor shut down, the turbines shut down, which is all in accordance with normal safety procedure."
She said Eskom had begun drawing in electricity from other parts of the South African grid and was restoring its bulk supply to the city of Cape Town.
She was waiting for a full list of the areas affected, but there were reports that towns as far afield as Hermanus and Swellendam were affected for "a couple of minutes". Power was being restored "block by block".
- SAPA
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