Residents without power after fire ravages Pyramid substation
The metro says customers who are fed from the substation are experiencing a blackout and will be kept up to date with progress on the repairs underway.
Parts of Rooiwal, north of Pretoria, are without electricity following a fire that engulfed the Pyramid substation in the early hours of Wednesday, October 2.
The city’s emergency services department was dispatched to the scene and swiftly extinguished the blaze.
Metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said during the incident, the 132kv Line 1 Bellom-Parktown tripped, which caused an outage also to Pretoria North, Wonderboom, Wolmer, Pyramid, Pumulani, Koedoespoort and parts of Waltloo substations.
“A team of technicians from the energy and electricity department was also dispatched to the scene and managed to isolate the fault.”
Bokaba said all the affected substations have now been switched back (on), except for the Pyramid substation, which will remain off until the repair work has been completed.
“The cause of the fire has not yet been determined,” said Bokaba.
He added that currently, only the Rooiwal Sewerage Plant and households around the Pyramid substation have been affected by the power supply interruption.
“Our technicians will be working around the clock to ensure that power supply is restored to the affected areas.”
He said the city is mindful that customers who are fed from the substation are experiencing a blackout and will be kept up to date with progress relating to repairs underway.
“The estimated time for restoration will be communicated once the bulk of the repair work has been completed.”
He said Tshwane apologises to affected residents for the inconvenience caused by this unforeseen occurrence.
“Consumers will be kept abreast of the developments.”
Acting mayor, dr Nasiphi Moya, said metro officials are on the scene to assess the damage caused by the fire.
Moya said there are discussions for short-term relief of water as the outage has affected water supply.
“Residents should not panic as yet, as updates regarding this will be provided.”
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