Johannesburg’s power utility, the City Power technical team worked well on Friday night trying to restore power to some areas affected by the trifactor compounding crisis of the country’s electricity supply: cable theft, vandalism and flooding.
3600 phones are dead in Johannesburg
More than 1500 calls from Roodepoort
As of Sunday morning, City Power received more than 3600 reports of power outages in Johannesburg.
Out of 3600, more than 1500 power failure reports out of Roodepoort with about 750 incoming calls overnight.
On Saturday night, City Power received reports of five medium voltage outages in the area.
Isaac Mangena City Power said about eight teams of technicians have been sent to Roodepoort for many outages but the work was delayed by the weather and open shedding.
“We are at the mercy of the weather and floods exacerbating and frustrating the repair process,” said Mangena.
Also read: Lotus Substation: City Power technicians resume repairs after rain disruption
“We have identified areas with serious pressure and we have moved more teams to those areas,” he said.
But although technicians carried out repair work overnight, wet weather and subsequent flooding have delayed the restoration.
Key problem areas on Saturday include:
- Christiaan De Wet Substation (Wilgeheuwal, Allen’s Nek, Weltevredenpark): About 98 % of the power has been restored and the team is done.
- Tshepisong: About 90% of power has been restored, but the section of Line A that supplies Leratong Village remains out. Repairs will continue on Sunday morning.
- Peter Road Substation (Willowbrook, Little Falls, Amarosa Shopping Center, Ruimsig, Tres Jolie and surroundings): Transformer tripped at 14.29pm. The power supply will remain off until the transformer can be recharged.
- William Nicol Switching Station (Florida Park, Floracliffe and surrounding areas): There is a power outage and operators are on the way to investigate. More details will be communicated once the cause is determined.
- Fleurhof (Glen lea Switching Station): The power supply is interrupted, the mini substation remains out, the operator is collecting material this afternoon for repairs.
- Witpoortjie Ext 16: There is a power outage in the area and this has been extended for investigation.
See also: PHOTOS: This area of ​​Roodepoort was affected by the theft of 17 meters of cable
Cable theft and vandalism increase when the load is released
Mangena said officials refused to adhere to the restoration timeline.
“What we found in certain areas like Witpoortjie, because the team was doing repairs on one of the sites, another part of the line was attacked, where cable theft was done.
“So our technicians will think the repair process will take a certain amount of time, but when they have to restore the power, they can’t, because the cable has been stolen in another connecting line,” explained Mangena.
Loss of load occurs approximately three times a day, and in these cases, City Power recorded a surge in attacks on the infrastructure.
Also watch: ‘They stole all the robots’ – Traffic light vandalism takes place in Joburg
City Power is improving services in all departments
On the complaint of poor communication: Mangena said the power utility has increased capacity across all departments.
Communication and updates happen in real time on serval platforms including City Power’s official social media accounts and local WhatsApp groups.
“Roodepoort and Lenasia have the most active councilors who have helped us provide updates to the affected communities,” Mangena said.
“But they’re also frustrated, they don’t want to hear that we’re still making mistakes, they want to know if they can cook dinner or if they have to go out.”
Shutdown repairs can only be done outside of the load shedding period.
Earlier, City Power has asked Eskom to reprieve from opening to allow technicians to attend faults, when there have been over 5000 outage reports due to inclement weather.
“We communicate with Eskom every day and monitor whether it is necessary to ask Eskom to release certain areas from the load, such as if it has been three days and the team cannot access the area due to flood damage.”
NOW Read: City Power recorded at least 33 incidents of cable theft this week