Large parts of Johannesburg have been without electricity since Friday, but City Power says it is working on restoring power to affected areas.
City Power told TimesLIVE it was “experiencing high call volumes across all service delivery centres” on Saturday due to outages in different parts of the city.
According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the bulk of the calls being received are linked to three main power supply interruptions.
• “The biggest outage comes from Kloofendal and Christian de Wet substations in the Roodepoort area. The outage is widespread because these two feed other substations such as Peter Road, Wilropark, Wilgeheuwel and Boothill,” Mangena said.
The areas affected by this outage include Horison, Horison View, Florida Park, Georgina, Roodekrans, Wilropark, Allen’s Nek, Helderkruin, Eagle Canyon, Ruimsig, Wilgehuiwel, Constantia Kloof, Strubensvalley, Weltevredenpark, Honeydew, Kloofendal and surrounding areas.
“The cause of the outage is faulty overhead transmission lines. The lines snapped after a tree fell damaging two overhead cables in the process. The tree was cut down by City Parks. The team is aware of the cause and has commenced with repairs. Unfortunately, the area will remain off until repairs are complete.
“City Power will update customers on developments relating to this outage,” Mangena said.
• “Another outage emanates from Penny Street Substation. Operators are on site working on resolving the outage. It’s affecting customers in Witpoortjie and Grobler Park,” he said.
• “The last power supply disruption comes from the JG Strydom Switching Station and it’s affecting Weltevredenpark. Four cables were damaged following a flash on the ring main unit (RMU) yesterday. This is extensive damage which required the dismantlement of the RMU.”
According to Mangena, this has been successfully done and the team has commenced with the replacement process of both the RMU and cables.
“We understand the frustration caused by these outages and have been updating customers on all our platforms including sending information to stakeholders on WhatsApp groups as soon as there are new developments. We appeal for patience and understanding as our teams work on restoring supply in all affected areas. There are teams on all locations and we are calling on customers to bear with us as we do all we can to restore power,” he said.
In an update on Saturday afternoon, Mangena said work to install the Kloofendal transmission power lines was "progressing well".
"The team has removed the damaged transmission power lines. Currently the team is preparing the new power lines after which they will install to the network pylons.
"If there are no challenges after this process, the transmission power line will be energised," he said.
"It is anticipated that the first circuit will be ready for restoration by this afternoon."
Some of the suburbs affected by the Kloofendal incident were subjected to a 15-hour outage a day earlier due to a faulty cable.
Large parts of Johannesburg hit by power outages
Image: Sandile Ndlovu
Large parts of Johannesburg have been without electricity since Friday, but City Power says it is working on restoring power to affected areas.
City Power told TimesLIVE it was “experiencing high call volumes across all service delivery centres” on Saturday due to outages in different parts of the city.
According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the bulk of the calls being received are linked to three main power supply interruptions.
• “The biggest outage comes from Kloofendal and Christian de Wet substations in the Roodepoort area. The outage is widespread because these two feed other substations such as Peter Road, Wilropark, Wilgeheuwel and Boothill,” Mangena said.
The areas affected by this outage include Horison, Horison View, Florida Park, Georgina, Roodekrans, Wilropark, Allen’s Nek, Helderkruin, Eagle Canyon, Ruimsig, Wilgehuiwel, Constantia Kloof, Strubensvalley, Weltevredenpark, Honeydew, Kloofendal and surrounding areas.
“The cause of the outage is faulty overhead transmission lines. The lines snapped after a tree fell damaging two overhead cables in the process. The tree was cut down by City Parks. The team is aware of the cause and has commenced with repairs. Unfortunately, the area will remain off until repairs are complete.
“City Power will update customers on developments relating to this outage,” Mangena said.
• “Another outage emanates from Penny Street Substation. Operators are on site working on resolving the outage. It’s affecting customers in Witpoortjie and Grobler Park,” he said.
• “The last power supply disruption comes from the JG Strydom Switching Station and it’s affecting Weltevredenpark. Four cables were damaged following a flash on the ring main unit (RMU) yesterday. This is extensive damage which required the dismantlement of the RMU.”
According to Mangena, this has been successfully done and the team has commenced with the replacement process of both the RMU and cables.
“We understand the frustration caused by these outages and have been updating customers on all our platforms including sending information to stakeholders on WhatsApp groups as soon as there are new developments. We appeal for patience and understanding as our teams work on restoring supply in all affected areas. There are teams on all locations and we are calling on customers to bear with us as we do all we can to restore power,” he said.
In an update on Saturday afternoon, Mangena said work to install the Kloofendal transmission power lines was "progressing well".
"The team has removed the damaged transmission power lines. Currently the team is preparing the new power lines after which they will install to the network pylons.
"If there are no challenges after this process, the transmission power line will be energised," he said.
"It is anticipated that the first circuit will be ready for restoration by this afternoon."
Some of the suburbs affected by the Kloofendal incident were subjected to a 15-hour outage a day earlier due to a faulty cable.
TimesLIVE
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