Residents and business owners in the Randburg area need to brace themselves for ongoing unplanned power outages – warns Ward 102 Councillor David Potter.
Potter explained that one of the Eskom transformers failed and would only be back online on 4 August as Eskom had conducted repairs.
Residents had recently suffered from unplanned power outages that were not on any load shedding schedule.
He said that Eskom supplies power to City Power through many inbound supplies with one on Hans Schoeman Street, in Randburg.
“There are three transformers here and one has failed, leaving only two to supply power to the many suburbs the station feeds. During peak periods, the demand exceeds what the station is able to supply and then trips,” explained Potter.
Areas currently affected by the load rotation are Randpark Ridge Ext 4/5, Ruiterhof, Ferndale, Fontainebleau, Malanshof, Blairgowrie, Moret and Klipfontein.
He explained that to get the power back on, City Power has to switch back on all the affected areas one by one to ensure the transformer does not trip again.
He said Eskom had conducted repairs to the transformer and insisted that the failed transformer will be back online on 4 August.
This had prompted City Power to introduce ‘Load Rotation’ for various suburbs affected to limit the load during peak periods. “Councillors are all frustrated with City Power and the way they function,” he complained
City Power confirmed it was currently conducting load shifting in the Randburg area due to a technical problem with an Eskom transformer.
“This results in overload problems on the remaining Eskom transformer. Therefore, to prevent a total blackout of the Randburg substation, City Power is forced to rotate customers until Eskom resolves the transformer malfunction,” explained media relations consultant Hloni Motloung.
Motloung instructed that customers, who were experiencing loss of power, could call the City of Joburg Call Centre at 0860 562 874 or log a call on the City Power website by clicking on “Fault Logging”.
“City Power will send out updates on Twitter: @CityPowerjhb,”said Motloung.
Details: City Power 011 490 7607; Ward 102 Councillor David Potter 082 885 9688
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