City Power unveiles upgraded Eldos substation

The City of Johannesburg and City Power officially launched the upgraded Eldorado Park Substation on September 3.

Executive Mayor, Dada Morero, MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Jack Sekwaila, City Power board Chairperson Makhosini Kharodi, CEO Tshifularo Mashava, and local leaders attended the unveiling.

The construction of the new substation began in March 2015 to refurbish and upgrade the existing 3x45MVA 88/11kV substation to a 4x45MVA 88/11kV facility.

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Patriotic Alliance Cllr for Ward 18, Juwariya Kaldine acknowledged the upgrade’s significance, citing that previous electricity issues will be addressed.

“As the community, we will strive to pay for services to support City Power’s revenue collection. We understand that the entity cannot operate without revenue,” said Cllr Kaldine.

Kharodi commended City Power’s efforts and praised Kaldine and Ward 17 Councillor Dwayne Ponsonby for safeguarding the substation.

Morero said the project started in 2015 and in 2016 it was marred with fraud and corruption issues.

There was an investigation that led to the arrest of some individuals including the service provider, he further detailed.

He said the substation was supposed to have been completed around 2017/18 but it unfortunately took longer.

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“But it is important to note that some of the equipment had to be procured overseas and at times it takes long to arrive here.

“That is why the budgeting process of building a substation or the supply chain process is not the same as the normal supply chain process.

“At some point we need to give the service provider money in advance to procure the equipment,” said Morero.

Morero told the community that load reduction has to be implemented due illegal connections and meter bridging.

This has forced the City introduce load reduction to protect the substation.

“Otherwise, the equipment might blow up and it might be fatal to City Power staff who must constantly maintain the substation,” added the mayor.

Morero further explained that the City was coming up with new models to deal with informal settlement dwellers who are unable to access electricity.

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He said the models include Micro Grid, which will give energy to the poorest of the poor so they can have electricity which will allow the City to mitigate illegal connections.

He encouraged the community to protect and defend the infrastructure and urged them to continue to pay for services.

“This will enable the City to improve the quality of life and the rendered services,” he concluded.