The City is aware of power concerns and challenges raised by residents of Groeneweide, Dawn Park and surrounding areas.
These areas get supply from Eskom on three transformers 2X20 MVA and 1X40 MVA that are undergoing maintenance.
“While in the past the City would have been able to handle the demand with its own transformers, of late there has been a spike in residents who have bypassed meters and illegal connections,” said Zweli Dlmani, metro spokesperson.
“This has caused a tremendous increase in the electricity demand, thus tripping all circuits at the substation.
“Areas with high numbers of bypassed meters and illegal connections include Villa Liza, Windmill Park and some parts of Dawn Park.”
He said the City’s substations are designed with protection to isolate and trip once they reach a certain maximum demand in order to avoid a catastrophe or fire, which can lead to extended restoration times and run into millions of rands of repair work.
“It is important to note as well is that it is not technically possible to separate paying customers from those who do not buy electricity,” said Dlamini.
“The network design is integrated for easy and safe operation.While the City acknowledges the challenge at the moment, engineers are looking at network permutation and opportunity that will allow, in the short and medium-term, to limit the interruptions, especially in winter.
“In the next 14 days, the supply to Groeneweide, Dawn Park and surroundings should be stable.”
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