Power to the people!

The desperately needed Sheffield substation has finally been switched on, but the KwaDukuza (KDM) municipality said developers who delayed the project will have to contribute to the cost of laying the cables if they want to draw power from it.

The official handover of the substation was on Monday, December 14 after an 18 month delay in laying the seven kilometre long cables that connect it to the Shakaskraal switchroom.

Cllr Sandeep Oudhram strongly expressed his dissatisfaction with the delay and said KDM planned the substation well in advance but blamed local developers who failed to lay the cables as allegedly previously agreed, for keeping Salt Rock, Chaka’s Rock and Sheffield Beach residents in the dark.

“The municipality had to go and find an extra R18 million in the budget to connect the substation,” said Oudhram, calling for the true reasons for the delay to be made public.

Siyabonga Khanyile, KwaDukuza municipality acting executive director of electrical engineering services, said the developers of Brettenwood Coastal Estate, Dunkirk Estate, Mount Richmore, and Zululami Estate will have to contribute financially to the new substation, otherwise they will not receive any power from it.

However, Theo van As, Mount Richmore estate manager denied Oudhram and Khanyile’s allegations.

“Mount Richmore did contribute financially to the laying of the cables between the Shakaskraal switchroom and Sheffield substation and we are currently receiving power,” said Van As.

He said Mount Richmore was currently fighting KDM on a related issue in court.

Dunkirk estate manager, Robin Streit, was not willing to comment on any agreement to contribute towards the cables but said they had a confidential services agreement with KDM.

Spokesmen for Brettenwood and Zululami were not able to be contacted.

The new substation will dramatically lighten the load on the old 10 MVA Chakas Rock substation that has been running over capacity at 15 MVA due to development outgrowing infrastructure. Power supply in the Chakas Rock, Salt Rock and Sheffield Beach areas has been extremely unstable because the Salt Rock infrastructure could no longer cope with the demand.

“It is a miracle that substation did not explode,” said Oudhram.

Nick Hall, KDM technical services electrical engineer said switching power back on after load shedding will from now on be quick and with the Chaka’s Rock substation now being a “firm substation”, both 10 MVA transformers are only running at half capacity. So if one fails, the other can fully handle the load and keep the lights on.

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