Argus reported that South African state owned utility Eskom has closed one of the two units at the 1,800 MW Koeberg nuclear power plant outside Cape Town because of an operational fault. The cause of the fault is being investigated.

Eskom said that "The automatic shutdown was triggered by the protection system on a motor as a result of either mechanical or instrumentation failure."

Koeberg supplies electricity mainly to the Western Cape province. Eskom will use open cycle gas turbines to maintain electricity supplies to the province, if needed.

Eskom has a total generating capacity of around 40,000 MW, most of which is from coal-burning power stations. Koeberg is Africa's only civilian nuclear power plant.

(Sourced from www.argusmedia.com)