Late night fire at JVA substation leaves many without power
In an effort to speedily restore the service, the City of Ekurhuleni is engaging various stakeholders, including Eskom, for urgent assistance.
A fire at around 6.30pm last night damaged a 40MVA transformer at the JVA substation, leaving businesses and residents without power. This was the second fire at the substation this year, which caused enormous damage to the infrastructure, plunging parts of New Era industrial, Fulcrum, Dal Fouche, Pollak Park and Reedville into darkness. Ekurhuleni’s city manager Dr Imogen Mashazi visited the substation this morning (August 20) to assess the extent of the damage. “Our priority right now is to restore power to all affected customers, businesses and residents alike. “At the same time it is important to find the root cause of the damage so that we can be able to put preventative measures in place,” said Mashazi, while addressing members of the Eastern Gauteng Chamber of Commerce and Industry on site. Mashazi undertook to share the results of the investigation with all the relevant stakeholders.
Also read: New Era substation on fire
Businesses were especially anxious for the power to be restored as quickly as possible due to the expenditure associated with an extended power outage. Some reported having spent over R10-million over the 17 days it took to restore power when the last fire happened in February. When asked if the City of Ekurhuleni would refund/compensate residents or businesses for damaged equipment or loss of food, Mashazi explained they are not obliged to replace anything because incidents happen everywhere and it is not the responsibility of the metro to replace food when there are electricity issues. “We buy the electricity from Eskom. “Every month we must pay R2-billion. “Even now we’re struggling to pay because people are not paying for services. “We must buy electricity so that our customers can have electricity and water. “It’s unfortunate that such things happen,” said Mashazi.
Also read: Small businesses to count the costs after power outage
In an effort to speedily restore the service, the City of Ekurhuleni is engaging various stakeholders, including Eskom, for urgent assistance. City spokesperson Themba Gadebe said the municipality will keep the community informed throughout the process of restoring power to the affected areas.
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