Is Bryanston’s electricity grid fit to manage the suburb?
Following the increased number of outages experienced in suburb and surrounding areas in the recent month, ward councillors David Potter (Ward 102), Vincent Earp (Ward 103), Mike Wood (Ward 104) and Chris Santana (Ward 106) engaged with a number of City officials which included MMC of Environment and Infrastructure Mpho Moerane and acting CEO of City Power Malope Ramatapa to get some answers.
According to the councillors, residents were up in arms during the latest roll-out of load-shedding as the distributors in the area would continually trip when the electricity was restored after load-shedding. City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said that the distributors tripped each time because they were overloaded when the electricity was restored. “There were several trips on the network owing to inrush currents. Upon investigation at Bryanorth substation there was an outage on the Logan distributor due to a cable fault, which was isolated and power was restored. Furthermore, at Bryanston substation there was a trip on Eskom’s transformer number 12 which feeds feeder board 2 on the City Power side,” he explained.
Mangena added that Eskom carried out repairs and the normal restoration process was followed, which includes gradually restoring the various blocks to ensure minimum trips due to an inrush of currents.
“We want to emphasise that load-shedding is bad for our network and infrastructure which was never built to be switched on and off at short intervals. Part of the solution is to talk to Eskom over load-shedding and restoration times,” Mangena said.
According to a joint statement by the councillors following the engagement, City Power acknowledged that the issues affecting the suburb are ‘far from ideal’, and the added pressure of load-shedding brings frustration to both the City and its residents. “Ward councillors are extremely active in escalating outages and issues raised by residents but are at the mercy of City Power resources being available to deal with the outages,” said the councillors in the statement.
In addition, the ward councillors requested that the power utility provide the following:
- Interim relief from load-shedding to areas affected by extended outages.
- Updated load-shedding details relating the various blocks, the status-quo of the Bryanston and surrounding suburbs power network.
- Infographics which encourage smarter use of electricity, i.e switching off non-essential appliances and devices.
- Most importantly, a focus on ensuring that Bryanston and the affected suburbs undergo major network maintenance to prevent further ongoing outages.
The councillors and City Power continue to encourage residents to ensure that all non-essential appliances are turned off during load-shedding. “[This will] ensure that when the supply is restored, an inrush current does not cause a trip,” read the statement.
“Whilst the situation is far from ideal, the MMC, chairperson and City Power officials are to be thanked for their participation at the request of the four ward councillors who will continue to champion the ongoing Bryanston and surrounding suburbs power issues as best as possible.”
Residents are recommended to follow the City Power Twitter page for updates relating to load-shedding and planned and unplanned outages. Outages and faults can also be reported to www.citypower.mobi or the City of Joburg Call Centre on 0860 JOBURG / 0860 562874.
Related articles:
https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/278063/keep-up-to-date-with-city-power-on-twitter/
https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/278150/coj-avails-email-addresses-for-customer-service-during-covid-19/
