In the past few weeks, Johannesburg residents have experienced several unplanned power interruptions, caused by storms, cable theft, vandalism and the natural wear and tear of electricity infrastructure.
From Alexandra to Randpark Ridge, residents have had to put up with numerous outages recently.
The entity acknowledged this and said measures had been put in place to address this.
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Development, Nico de Jager, said the rainstorms and the winter months would present City Power with a challenge to provide a reliable supply of electricity to residents. The power utility is doing everything possible to prepare for the two seasons.
The City will also continue upgrading old infrastructure, prosecute cable thieves and expand the electricity network to those who still do not have electricity.
He also said City Power had increased the number of security personnel, including police and Metro police members, to guard the electricity network.
“This partnership raided several suspected scrapyards across the City where a lot of stolen electricity infrastructure was found and several suspects arrested. In certain instances, we have discovered the bodies of people who died in what appeared to be a failed attempt to cut and steal live electricity wires,” he said.
Although the City cannot afford to replace all of its cable infrastructure, the better alternative, aluminium, will replace copper in a phased approach.
De Jager said aluminium does not have as much value to cable thieves.
“At the present moment, the City of Johannesburg has an R170 billion infrastructure backlog which we inherited from the previous administration. Of this R170 billion, R19 billion is required to refurbish electricity infrastructure in the next 10 years,” he said.
City Power, he said, has pro-actively identified old electricity networks that must be replaced as a matter of urgency.
But the reality of limited funds means the entity cannot wholly eradicate power interruptions.
“The reality we face today is that City Power, or the City of Johannesburg, does not have all the funds needed to refurbish the electricity network and to expand electricity to areas that are still without electricity today.”
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