City Power has condemned illegal electricity connections saying that it sabotages the efficiency of the power supply. On Tuesday, June 27, the City Power revenue protection team, accompanied by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) team, removed illegal connections cables that were connected to Floyd Shivambu Informal Settlement in Austin View, Keeshond Street.
During the operation, the revenue protection team managed to remove about 2 000kg of aluminium cables that were illegally connected.
City Power said the illegal connections were causing unplanned outages and put the electricity system under pressure as it is overloading the mini substations, transformer substations, and pole-mounted transformers.
City Power spokesperson, Issac Mangena said most of the outages in Midrand areas are due to illegal connections as most of the cables that move from the electricity boxes into the yards and walls of houses are getting stolen.
“These types of cables, such as Aerial Bundle Cables (ABC) are used to connect streetlights and are often used to connect people illegally to our grid in informal settlements due to their durability and easy access,” Mangena said.
The utility said the operation of disconnecting illegal connections is to minimise the unplanned outage and reduce outages for city power paying customers. Illegal connections lead to the network being multifunctional, increasing trips, cables burning, and the voltage on the network being lower than normal,” added Mangena.
City Power strongly emphasises that illegal connections are unsafe, and they are also aware of illegal connections at Commercia Extension 09, Rotweiller Street, and Rabie Ridge Extensions 4 and 5 and will be intensifying efforts to remove them.
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