UPDATE: 11.30am
Let there be light! Power is back on.
Residents are pleased with the swift action by City Power technicians who worked throughout the night trying to restore power. Technicians on site at about 10.30am were only about an hour away from turning the new mini substation on.
Through the use of WhatsApp groups workers were well-fed and kept warm during last night’s terrible storm.
#Craighall power outage techs are working hard @RK_Gazette @CityPowerJhb pic.twitter.com/xlYOgHa0vI
— Ashtyn Mackenzie (@AshtynMackenzie) April 12, 2018
UPDATE: 8.30am
Technicians worked throughout the cold and wet night to replace the burnt-out mini substation on Lancaster Avenue.
Martin Williams explained that contractors worked very hard to get the power back up to affected residents. At about 11.30pm last night testing for power began.
UPDATE: 5.51pm
The rain seems to have caused a massive delay in the restoration of power for desperate Craighall Park residents.
Earlier today, technicians suggested that the power should come back on by about 1am or 2am tomorrow morning (12 April).
However, due to the severe storm that recently hit the area, work has come to a halt.
Residents should expect to only receive full power in the early to late hours of tomorrow morning.
Ward 90 councillor, Martin Williams, commented that to use a generator is just not feasible at this point but that he had inquired about the possibility of using one to feed power to the affected areas.
This marks nearly 24 hours without power.
UPDATE: 1.16pm
It seems that digging has been happening throughout the day at the site of the burnt mini substation. According to Martin Williams, contractors on-site estimate that power should be restored by later tonight. He did, however, caution that any provided times of restoration are mere estimations and may change.
Residents were left in the dark after a mini-substation burnt out before 5.30pm last night (10 April) on Lancaster Avenue in Craighall Park.
@CityPowerJhb over 5 hours without power in Craighall Park and still no ETR. Surely someone in your employ could take an educated guess at how much longer this will take to resolve?
— Byron Linsell (@byronlinsell) April 10, 2018
Still waiting here in craighall for 4 hours! Had 5 minutes of power earlier.. any update please?
— RhinoWhino (@AnnieDoop) April 10, 2018
@CityPowerJhb hi i am in Jan Smuts Craighall without power
— DaveP (@DaveP2718) April 10, 2018
According to Ward 90 councillor Martin Williams, “The MSS at 90 Lancaster Avenue, Craighall Park, is burnt out and will have to be replaced. … [A] new MSS could be in place in 24 hours … but replacing one is quite a big deal.”
City Power’s Sol Masolo sent out a statement at 7.20pm last night stating that City Power would like to notify customers of an existing unplanned power interruption affecting the parts of Craighall Park and that technicians were currently on site attending to the outage.
UPDATE: Parkhurst SS Craighall distributor 95% restored. ^RT
— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) April 11, 2018
City Power indicated at 7am today (11 April) that the Parkhurst substation distributor was 95 per cent restored. Williams, however, suggested that even if the substation in Parkhurst has been restored, Craighall Park residents and parts of other areas may still be affected by the power outage caused by the burnt-out MSS.
Siphiwe Maphumulo from City Power said, “The materials are on the way to the MSS and it should be fixed within the day, I don’t want to promise but hopefully by 12pm today.”
Let us know if you have been affected by the power outage in the comment section below
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