Cable theft plunges Lenasia South, Ennerdale and Grasmere Toll in darkness

Around 400m of cable theft has plunged Lenasia South and surrounding areas including the Grasmere Toll Plaza and Ennerdale into darkness.

It is understood the power supply was disrupted by criminals at about 6:30am on Tuesday.

City Power said it is aware of the power supply interruption affecting several areas serviced by the Lenasia Service Delivery Centre (SDC).

Burnt Basbar

Spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the Ennerdale Switching Station, Lunar and Hopefield Substations are off because of a burnt Basbar link from Eskom’s side.

“The team on site also discovered that around 400 metres of control protection cables were stolen on City Power’s side.

“The Protection team from City Power is on site still working on assessing the full extent of damaged and stolen cable. From there, materials will be sourced to commence with repairs. We have been informed that Eskom is also in the process of acquiring materials to start with the work of replacing the burnt busbar link,” Mangena said.

Mangena said the three substations will remain off until repairs are complete.

This is not the first time the substations have been targeted by criminals who have stolen copper cables in recent months.

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Affected areas

The following areas are affected:

Ennerdale:

• Ennerdale Extension 1-14
• Meriting
• Lawley 1
• Ennerdale Extension 9 and surroundings.

Lunar

• Lenasia South Extension 4, 7 (Migson Manor)
• Finetown, (Eskom)
• Mountain View
• Grasmere Toll Plaza, and surroundings.

Hopefield

• Ennerdale Extension 8
• Lawley 2

Mangena said the estimated time of restoration is still unknown at this stage.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused. We will keep customers updated as the work unfolds.”

M1 highway fire

Meanwhile, Mangena said that repairs on the damaged electricity infrastructure on the M1 tunnel are finally complete and the power supply is set to be fully restored.

“Yesterday, the newly installed 88kV cable passed the test and shortly after that, it was livened up. The team will be moving the load from some of the contingency measures that had been put in place such as interconnectors and a generator. That load will be moved back to the 88kV cable.”

Parts of Johannesburg‘s inner city were plunged into darkness earlier this month after underground cables caught alight.

Last week, the City Power clean-up operations revealed that 300 metres of copper cable was stolen during the recent vandalism that sparked a fire in the Joburg CBD.

Cable theft was alleged to be behind the fire, with City Power security also having to later exchange gunfire with informal settlers who were attempting to steal the burnt cables.

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