Kensington mini-substation raises concerns to residents

Kensington-based resident Ivan Green shared his concerns about the open electricity sub substation in Nerina Street.

Cables are exposed and doors are not locking which makes it easy to open and see live wires and cables. There are small plants growing inside the mini-substation.

Green said that it’s been like that for over a year and he reported it to the ward councillor and still nothing has been done about it. “How far do we have to go up the chain of command in order to get things done? There are school kids that walk past here in the morning and afternoons. Do we need a fatal accident to happen before anything is done about it?

“There will be cable theft or someone will die before anything happens.”

Ward 104 Councillor Emi Koekemoer said she is aware of the complaint, however, the resident has not included a reference number as proof of reporting the incident to the relevant entity. “I have since reported it to risk control and am still waiting for feedback.”

She added that there are so many substations with the same issues. “Substation security is an ongoing issue councillors have taken up with City Power and the executive as it exposes our already fragile infrastructure to theft and vandalism. It became apparent that the risk department doesn’t have nearly enough resources to tend to the locking of boxes, especially those that function with electromagnetic locks and we have since embarked on a partnership with private security companies to assist with the securing of infrastructures.”

The councillor explained some of the reasons behind the issues of opened substations. “One of the reasons for this ongoing issue is, for example, today the substations can be locked and tomorrow they are stolen again or the next time the contractor needs to gain access the locks are broken again. It is something that requires continuous monitoring which I don’t think City Power has the capacity to do right now. That is why we started the Community Partnership Programme.”

The programme seeks to create sustainable partnerships with local communities, businesses and other interested local community parties to protect City Power electricity network infrastructure.

“The programme will allow security companies who are willing to adopt the substations or infrastructures and look after them and put their signage up. Basically what happens is they will put their security beams up and when the alarms go off, not only the security company gets notified, but City Power will also get notified. That is the idea behind it.”

The programme is finalised and the paperwork is available for security companies to reach out.

“It going to take a big community effort to make sure that the infrastructure is secured. At the end of the day, as residents we do have a vested interest – it is our safety, it is our power and if that means we need to do things a different way, then we do that,” she added.

City Power Spokesperson Isaac Mangena said that the door was stolen at Nerina Street making this mini-substation unsafe. “We will urgently embark on a process to procure a new door for this mini-substation. We are working on a seven-working-days deadline.

“The high number of open mini-substations is the result of theft and vandalism. Please be aware that City Power is currently in the process of quantifying the number of locks and doors required in its feeder zone.
“This project is a much bigger project that we have embarked on due to the prevalence of vandalism,” he told Randburg Sun.

He added that City Power has also been working on a longer-term strategy which includes communities and law-enforcement agencies. The aim of the strategy is to drastically reduce incidences of vandalism. City Power appeals to communities to report any suspicious activity around its infrastructure.

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