Recently, City Power technicians worked around the clock to stabilise the municipal grid after intermittent outages at the Randburg and Van Beek substations plunged several suburbs into darkness for almost a week.
Power in Darrenwood tripped because of a fault on a mini-substation housed inside a chamber, leaving several northern suburbs, including the inner city in darkness. Another outage at Van Beek substation occurred after a voltage transformer on one of the 20.5kV switches failed and subsequently exploded on restoration following load-shedding.
During repairs on the voltage transformer, another fault was detected on the 20kV cable. Following the fixing of two cables, tests were conducted on the 20kVA transformer. The transformer failed all electrical tests and could not be used to carry the load.
Councillor Mpho Moerane, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, said City Power has implemented an alternative plan to ensure power is fully restored to all areas affected by outages. “Our teams are stationed at Jeppe, Siemert and Van Beek substations to ensure power is restored.”
Moerane also said several residents of Alexandra were still without electricity following an explosion at the Vasco da Gama switching substation recently. “There was an attempted vandalism and theft at the switching substation – one of many in recent weeks – which led to an explosion. Areas affected start from Second to 18th Avenue, between Vasco and Hoffmeyer streets. Repair work is expected to finish this week,” he reported.
The MMC has appealed to municipal customers to report any acts of vandalism in their area to law enforcement agencies.
