City Power has called on members of the community to play their part and help conserve electricity.
According to spokesperson Isaac Mangena, a joint effort will help avoid prolonged power outages, many of which have occurred in recent weeks.
“Since the beginning of winter we have been experiencing a high increase in outages across the City of Johannesburg and in your community,” he said.
Outages can be caused by the following problems:
- Illegal connections
- Backyard rooms
- Vandalism of infrastructure
- Switching on many non-essential appliances such as stoves, geysers, heaters and electricity at the same time.
“As you are aware, most of our equipment failed due to the overloading on the network brought by illegal connections and irresponsible use of electricity.”
He added that cables often explode and burn due to overloading on the mini-substations and pole-mounted transformers.
“Replacing a transformer that blew up always takes time, over 24 hours, depending on availability,” Mangena said.
City Power expects to see a further increase in electricity demand as the cold weather continues.
“We appeal to you as the residents of Joburg to join hands with us and ensure you use electricity sparingly. While we try our best as City Power to attend to the outages as and when they are reported, our teams get overstretched due to the demand,” Mangena said.
Keep these important key principles of energy efficiency in mid to save electricity:
- Switch off electricity when not in use
- Use or change to energy-efficient appliances and lighting (CLS’s, LED lights, infrared heaters, etc.)
- Use alternative energy sources (solar heating and gas)
Report outages and faults to www.citypower.mobi, the Cito of Joburg Call Centre 0860 JOBURG / 0860 562874 or on the City Power Twitter page here.
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