Business struggle with fluctuating voltage
Businesses spend thousands of rands every day on generators, throw old medicines away, and see their fridges blown because of power issue.
City Power has apologised to businesses on Bram Fischer Drive who have had to use generators to operate even when the electricity is on. This is because of fluctuating voltage caused by a faulty cable.
It all began with a cable fault in February last year and a hasty reconnection and taping around the repair rather than putting a new sleeve on the cable or sealing it properly. Another outage in September last year – and again in June this year – drew attention to the cable, though a permanent fix has still not been done yet.
For the last few weeks businesses have had to find their own source of electricity.
“We have to run a diesel generator for R600 an hour from 07:00 until 18:00 because when we do not our electronics blow up,” explained operations manager at HTA School of Culinary Art, Dean du Plessis. “This is because it is on the wrong phase. Already we have lost fridges and saw our R15 000 kitchen extractor system blown.”
He and enrolment officer Kgomotso Swele and industry facilitator Dwane Riley bemoaned the situation and City Power’s lack of action.
Marina Gomersall from Fernridge Veterinary Clinic said they have had to throw medicines away because the fridges could not be kept on all the time.
“We have to run the generator now even when we shouldn’t have to, it’s ridiculous,” she said. “We have to use it to run the X-ray machine, and our phones are connected to the Wi-Fi so they don’t work when there is no power. This is affecting our business, customers and, ultimately, their pets as well.”
Ferndale Ridge Residents Group leader Pierre van Wyk has been fighting for the businesses affected, regularly emailing and visiting City Power’s Randburg service delivery centre to try find a solution.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena responded by apologising for this, and calling it unsafe and a cause of frustration.
“The voltage fluctuations happen during the cold season when customers draw more load on the aged cable network,” he said. ” To avoid this situation, we appeal to customers to use electricity sparingly and limit the use of heavy appliances such as geysers, stoves, and heaters.”
He said over the years technicians have been dispatched to replace affected cables, however this issue will keep recurring until the whole network is replaced.
“[This] requires a considerable budget and resources that are currently unavailable. We also suspect vandalism and bypassing of the meters as part of the reason for the higher and lower than normal voltage. A team will investigate this and meters in the area will also be audited.”
Mangena said once investigations are finished, materials will be ordered and a contractor appointed to work on repairs.
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