Cascading problems after Kendal coal conveyor belt broke led to Stage 4

Eskom had to jump to Stage 4 load-shedding on Tuesday morning after a coal conveyor belt broke at Kendal, leading to cascading problems and the failure of three units at the power station.  “In the early hours of this morning a conveyor belt feeding coal into Kendal Power Station failed. To conserve coal, the power output of the generators was reduced, but this required fuel oil to be used to sustain the boiler combustion,” Eskom said in a statement.