Power slowly being restored to affected Joburg suburbs following Saturday outage

Several Johannesburg north suburbs are still without power.

City Power informed residents on Sunday morning that an outage affecting Bryanston, River Club, Morningside and surrounding areas is being attended to by technical teams, but that an estimated time of restoration has not yet been established. 

The outage, they say, is due to “an existing fault on Eskom side”. 

Power to Morningside residents has since been restored.

#Update #Morningside transformer is fully restored. Thank you so very much Jo'burg for your cooperation during this difficult time. ^DR

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 22, 2019

Some residents in these areas say they have been without power for more than a day.

#OutageUpdate #Morningside City Power is encounting a total loss of supply in Bryanston, River Club, Morningside & surrounds. Due to an existing fault on Eskom side, their technical team is working on restoration. No ETR as yet, we'll update residents throughout. ^DR

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— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 22, 2019

While Eskom has given assurances that there would be no load shedding on Saturday, many suburbs in Johannesburg and surrounding areas were without power.

Eskom said on Saturday it does not expect any load shedding during the day, despite experiencing “severely constrained” electricity system due to an unplanned breakdown.

“While a number of units have returned to service, Eskom unexpectedly lost some generation units last night but load shedding is not expected,” the state-owned company said in a statement .It said it will continue to use emergency reserves to supplement capacity if necessary over this period, warning customers that the system continues to be vulnerable and unpredictable and that “the possibility of load shedding remains”, Fin24 reported.

Suburbs Allens Nek, Constantia Kloof, Honeydew, Radiokop, Ruimsig, Strubens Valley, Weltevreden Park, Little Falls, Wilgeheuwel, Lenasia South, Noordwyk, Alexandra, parts of the Johannesburg CBD, Newtown and others had no electricity for different durations on Saturday.

#RoodepoortOutage City Power is experiencing power interruption in the following areas:Allen’s Nek Constantia Kloof Honeydew Radiokop Ruimsig Strubensvalley Weltevreden Park, & surroundings. Team on route, no ETR as yet. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. ^DR— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 21, 2019

#RoodepoortOutage City Power is experiencing power interruption in the following areas:

Allen's Nek
Constantia Kloof
Honeydew
Radiokop
Ruimsig
Strubensvalley
Weltevreden Park, & surroundings. Team on route, no ETR as yet. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. ^DR

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 21, 2019

City Power attributed the outages to different reasons, such as cable faults and tripped distributors.

Residents vented their anger on City Power’s Twitter feed.

Do you do this on purpose, the technician's sit there and think…mmmm they have had power for too many consecutive days. We need to sort it out because every week without fail we sit without power. Weekly loadshedding…

— Hentus Matthee (@hentusmatthee) December 21, 2019

https://twitter.com/shawncd007/status/1208325477317959681

Oh 3B my 3B!! Virtual hug to all my neighbours, we never have uninterrupted electricity two days in a row whether it's load shedding or not. pic.twitter.com/hn3q2kpCw0

— Dineo (@DinnyMthi) December 21, 2019

Early this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa assured the nation that Eskom “should not be in a position to have any form of load shedding” between December 17 and January 15, 2020.

This came after the company implemented rotational power cuts from November, as it battled systems breakdowns at its power stations. The power supply constraints saw Eskom early this month introduce Stage 6 of load shedding for the first time, amid massive public outcry.

#NoordwykOutage We have sent out a team to investigate the cause & work on restoration. No ETR as yet. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. ^DR— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) December 21, 2019

Update: #NoordwykOutage
Techs are on site attending to MV fault in the area. ETR is not confirmed yet.^HM

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) October 14, 2017

Eskom had previously only implemented load shedding up to Stage 4, which allows for cuts of up to 4 000MW. Stage 6 allows for up to 6000MW to be shed from the national grid, about 12% of Eskom’s nominal total capacity.

The company said on Saturday its technical teams will continue to work over the holiday period to monitor the situation, carry out planned maintenance and to work at reducing unplanned breakdowns to below 9 500MW to enable us to minimise the possibility of load shedding.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena could not be reached for comment.

(Additional reporting by Nica Schreuder)

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