Various suburbs have been affected by rolling power outages caused by a lightning strike.
Areas such as Constantia Kloof, Little Falls, Allen’s Nek, Randpark Ridge, Roosevelt Park and Weltevreden Park had power outages for more than 48 hours.
The outages occurred between 9 to 11 November.
City Power tweeted on 9 November that technicians were at various locations trying to restore power. The technicians in question allegedly worked on feeder cables on 10 November.
Some frustrated residents took to City Power’s social media page and said, “When will this be restored, it’s been even all day and our food will go off, our children cannot eat, what’s going on really.”
Resident Andrew Wilkins said, “Nearly 24 hours without power. What caused the outage?”
“This is ridiculous. Been without power now for over 20 hours and no ETR can be given. What are you not telling us,” added resident Amanda Jansen van Rensburg.
Further updates trickled in suggesting that the power outages had been caused by the storm on 10 November. City Power said that it was working on a distributor at Kloofendal substation that had been hit by lightning.
City Power said on 11 November, “A new transformer is being moved to Kloofendal to replace the damaged one. This exercise involves logistical arrangements and City Power is working tirelessly in these unfavourable weather conditions to restore power.”
Later on in the day, the utility added that due to the severe damage, inclement weather and the difficulty to transport heavy equipment under the current weather conditions, delays were expected. Hloni Motloung from City Power said, “At the time, technicians were running tests to evaluate the damaged transformer and the parts damaged by the lightning strike.”
He explained that the tests themselves can take up to five hours, while the whole process can last for 12 hours. “We have to make sure that the transformer is working 100 per cent. It was later determined that it was unnecessary to replace the whole transformer. Instead, the damaged parts were replaced.”
