List of thermal power station failures

This list is concerned with severe and abnormal power outages which caused major power failures due to damage to a single thermal power station itself or its connections which take a significant amount of time - months or years to repair.

Whilst any electric grid is vulnerable to instability after the loss of a large generating source or transmission line, this can generally be dealt with without serious inconvenience to customers. However some power stations can be exceptionally large in respect to connected grid capacity so that any failure for these proportionally large stations can be more problematic than the failure of a typically sized station.

List of failures

Plant	Location	Description	Year	Reference
Vasilikos Power Station	Cyprus	427.5 MW power generation loss, due to munitions explosions. Widespread continuous power shortages	2011	[1]
Ferrybridge C	United Kingdom	2000 MW power generation loss, due to cooling tower collapse. No serious impact on National Grid	1 November 1965	[2]
Tilbury	United Kingdom	750 MW power generation loss, due to fuel fire February 2012. No serious impact on National Grid	1 February 2012	[2]
Shoreham	United Kingdom	1000 MW power generation loss, due to fuel fire February 2012. No serious impact on National Grid	February 2012	[3]
Arnot Power Station	South Africa	Up to 2352 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[4][5]
Camden Power Station	South Africa	Up To 1561 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[6][7]
Duvha Power Station	South Africa	Up To 3600 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[8][9]
Grootvlei Power Station	South Africa	Up To 1180 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[10][11]
Hendrina Power Station	South Africa	Up To 1893 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[12][13]
Kelvin Power Station	South Africa	Up To 214 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[14][15]
Kendal Power Station	South Africa	Up To 4116 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[16][17]
Komati Power Station	South Africa	Up To 990 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[18][19][20]
Kriel Power Station	South Africa	Up To 3000 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[21][22]
Kusile Power Station	South Africa	Up To 4800 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2017–Present	[23][24]
Lethabo Power Station	South Africa	Up To 3708 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[25][26]
Majuba Power Station	South Africa	Up To 4110 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[27][28]
Matimba Power Station	South Africa	Up To 3990 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[29][30]
Matla Power Station	South Africa	Up To 3600 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[31][32]
Medupi Power Station	South Africa	Up To 4764 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2015–Present	[33][34]
Rooiwal Power Station	South Africa	Up To 300 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[35][34]
Tutuka Power Station	South Africa	Up To 3654 MW Caused by unit breakdowns, leading to implementation of Loadshedding	2007–Present	[36][37]

See also

• Dam failure
• List of power outages
• Hydroelectricity
• List of hydroelectric power station failures
• Thermal power station

References

1. "Latest Blogs". Archived from the original on 2023-02-05.
2. Ferrybridge power stations
3. "Firefighters tackle blaze near Shoreham Power Station". BBC News. 2 March 2012.
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6. Staff Writer. "Eskom announces load-shedding after breakdowns at two power stations". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
7. Staff Writer. "Eskom warns of stage 2 load shedding at short notice on Monday". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
8. Staff Writer. "Eskom warns of load-shedding at short notice as six units break down". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
9. Staff Writer. "Eskom warns of stage 2 load shedding at short notice on Wednesday". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
10. Illidge, Myles. "Eskom rescue plan hits first roadblock — Legal action against 3,000MW gas power plant". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
11. Bloomberg. "Blow to South Africa power supply". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
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24. Omarjee, Compiled by Lameez. "Halfway there as Eskom finally switches on Kusile's Unit 3". Fin24. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
25. Vermeulen, Jan. "Stage 6 power cuts are here". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
26. Staff Writer. "Stage 2 load shedding continues on Wednesday and Thursday – here's the schedule". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
27. Illidge, Myles. "Eskom extends Stage 4 load-shedding". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
28. White, Ray. "Government announces immediate interventions to counter load shedding". ewn.co.za. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
29. Illidge, Myles. "Eskom increases power cuts to Stage 4". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
30. Njini, Felix. "Eskom seeks partners for R1 trillion energy transition". Fin24. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
31. Staff Writer. "Our plan to fix load-shedding cannot work if government does not get us capacity — Eskom". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
32. "Stage 1 load shedding on Wednesday (6 May)". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
33. Yell, Chris. "How to stop the worst load-shedding South Africa has ever seen". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
34. "Eskom hopes to cease load-shedding in 10 days, Koeberg chief nuclear officer resigns". The Mail & Guardian. 2022-07-11. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
35. Illidge, Myles. "Eskom's breakdown crisis in two charts". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
36. Labuschagne, Hanno. "Eskom's load-shedding disaster — From bad to worse". Retrieved 2022-08-17.
37. "Eskom stage 2 load shedding on Friday (26 June)". Retrieved 2022-08-17.