accidents

A transformer explosion at Eskom’s coal-fired 3.6-GW Matla Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, on Dec. 12 injured nine employees, including one critically. The incident, caused by a ruptured high-pressure steam pipe, has underscored challenges faced by Eskom’s generating fleet, even as the state-owned maintains its suspension of load-shedding. The incident, reported at 5 p.m. […]

Broadly put, today’s power plant operations are a mix of automated operations and manual or procedural steps. A plant may have hundreds of control loops, interlocks, permissives, and safety systems. In