Eskom has said it will meet the deadline to get a steam generator that suffered minor damage when it was dropped at a Chinese factory to Koeberg Unit 1 by December this year.

An Eskom delegation updated a joint meeting of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises and the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy on concerns with getting a unit at Koeberg in Cape Town ready for operation.

In September, a 20m long, 360-tonne steam generator was "dropped" inside a Chinese factory. This as Eskom was scrambling to make sure that a R5-billion project to replace six ageing steam generators avoided further delays. 

The Eskom delegation told Parliament on Wednesday that it would still be able to conclude the manufacture and delivery of the steam generator and have it delivered to South Africa's only nuclear power station by the end of the year.

"Manufacturing of steam generator 6 is in its final stages and is to be delivered to Koeberg by December 2022. The delivery delay was due to it being dropped during manufacturing," the submission said.

The submission said one support on the stand, on which the lower sub-assembly of steam generator 6 was resting, broke when the sub-assembly slipped off on the roller support, falling a distance of about 500mm.

"Minor damage to the replacement steam generator shell at impact areas. No repair other than light grinding of the surface marks was required. Damage to anti-vibration bars clamps, cutting, and re-welding of the c-clamps.

"Potential plastic deformation of 15 anti-vibration bars and 22 anti-vibration bars end to retaining ring welds. No repairs were performed and there are no tube integrity concerns."

The submission said steam generators 4 and 5 were delivered to Koeberg in August and are being prepared for Unit 1. Reactor pressure vessel head replacement was completed on both Unit 1 and Unit 2.

Eskom said its acceptance of the steam generator was based on an expert review of the Framatome justification by internal Eskom and independent industry experts, which were accepted by the regulator.

Regarding coal power capacity, the Eskom submission said at 17:00 on Sunday, 30 October, 11 coal-fired units were offline due to unplanned failures.