It is located about 4 km from Matla Power Station just outside the town of Kriel (Emalahleni Local Municipality, Mpumalanga).

In contrast with most other Eskom power stations, the turbine generators at Kriel are each housed in a separate building rather than the more common single turbine hall.

When Kriel was completed in 1979 it was the largest coal-fired power station in the Southern Hemisphere.

On 25 July 2022, the entire power station tripped.

[2][3] The station has six 500MW units for a total installed capacity of 3,000MW with turbine Maximum Continuous Rating at 36.90%.