Ward councilors and residents are left feeling uneasy as power outages in areas serve by the City Power Hursthill depot persist. The depot serves areas that include Rosebank, Greenside, Linden and Melville to name and has been experiencing backlogs due to contractor issues and shortages.
On Monday, 7 June there had been 2 119 logged calls, 1 554 un-actioned, 84 open work orders and 60 teams at the depot. Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck told the Rosebank Killarney Gazette that the outages have been happening for as long as he has been a councillor and the difference between all the previous years and now is the lack of private contractors that are needed to bolster the City Power repair teams.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said in a media statement that City Power has started to build strengthened internal capacity by promoting over 30 trade assistants into becoming electricians to increase capacity at the depot as of 1 June.
“We are also increasing contractor capacity to augment resources in our depots to ensure we deal with the backlogs and ensure security of supply,” said Mangena.
The media statement also stated that the changes made are part and parcel of the new operational model to enhance service delivery and to ensure that there is provision of electricity to residents.
Many of the outages in the area are said to be small – from individual properties to one or two streets.
“Added to this load shedding and prolonged cold weather, load shedding further weakens the system. And often the surge in demand when power comes back burns out cables, connectors and meters,” added Truluck.
Truluck also reported the quality of the work to being poor due to it currently being the financial year end, stock has run out therefore, the repair teams are forced to make botched or temporary repairs.
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