City Power recently released a statement notifying its customers of planned maintenance which was originally scheduled for Saturday, February 5 and Saturday, February 19.
However, the maintenance scheduled at the Eikenhof substation for February 5 was cancelled due to the late concerns raised by Rand Water and Joburg Water at a meeting with City Power.
“Joburg Water requested a grace period of two weeks, expressing concerns that the shutdown during the maintenance threaten their reservoirs which are currently running low with no reserves. Joburg Water indicated that the outage would negatively affect its customers that include hospitals,” City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena said in the statement.
“City Power supplies Rand Water with electricity to run its pump station in Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg. The pump station supplies water to several municipalities including Mogale City, Joburg, parts of Madibeng in the North West, and Ekurhuleni.”
Joburg Water said water supply operations would be affected on February 19 for nine hours, from 06:30 to 15:30. City Power will then be working on the 1B transformer.
The second round of maintenance has been postponed to Saturday, March 5 for nine hours, also from 06:30 to 15:30, on the 2B transformer at the Rand Water Eikenhof pump station.
As a result, the water supply from Eikenhof pump station will be reduced by 33% and 40% respectively during these times.
Joburg Water said residents south of the CBD as well as those in the northern and western areas of Johannesburg will experience poor to no water supply during peak water demand periods. High-lying and high-demand areas will be most affected.
The water entity said it would provide alternative supplies in the form of stationary and roaming water tankers to reduce the effect on consumers.
Affected areas will be:
Bergbron, Claremont, Delarey, Whiteridge, Roodekrans, Wilropark, Helderkruin, Constantia Kloof, Allen’s Nek, Weltevreden Park, Florida Hills, Florida North, Discovery, Selwyn, Florida Township, Horison, Horizon View, Roodepoort North, Florida Park, Constantia Kloof, Honeydew, Zandspruit, Laserpark, Randparkridge, Cosmo City, Lanseria, Thabo Mbeki informal settlement, Olivedale, Sundowner, Northwold, Boskruin, Bromhof, Kya Sands, Bloubosrand, Eagle Canyon, Honeydew View, Poortview, Ruimsig, Wilgeheuwel, Princess, Grobler Park, Lindhaven, Little Falls, Harveston, Honeydew and parts of Northriding.
“As City Power we want to emphasise that routine maintenance of our infrastructure is important to ensure the network performs efficiently at its optimal and to avoid total breakdown of the substation. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this,” Mangena concluded.
