Joburg outages expected to end soon as upgrades wrap up

The power disruptions taking place in various parts of Johannesburg are expected to end soon as City Power says the system will be stabilised.

The disruptions followed the installation of a new transformer by the entity.

City Power is Johannesburg’s biggest entity and contributes about 40% of its revenue. City of Johannesburg has massive infrastructure running into billions of rand. The refurbishment of ageing infrastructure and building of new infrastructure was cited as some of the causes behind the load shedding.

Parts of the northeastern suburbs of Johannesburg were plunged into darkness last week, with the new Sebenza substation, which currently has one transformer online, playing a role in the outage.

The second transformer is expected to be installed by the end of July. A third will come online later in 2018.

The Sebenza substation is a billion-rand investment aimed at mitigating power outages and capacity deficits at other substations. The project was initially meant to be completed by March, but the completion date has been moved to November due to budget constraints.

Nico de Jager, Johannesburg

HE SAID THE LOAD SHEDDING HAD ‘SOURED’ THE EXPERIENCE OF THE CITY’S RESIDENTS

member of the mayoral committee for environmental affairs, said that after reloading the first transformer, which was expected to happen on Monday evening, the power utility was “confident” of a stable supply — barring unexpected disruptions.

He said the load shedding had “soured” the experience of the city’s residents. But the city’s intention was to ensure that it delivered better service in the long term.

De Jager appealed to residents of Johannesburg to bear with the city as it entered the “last mile before we cross the finishing line.”

De Jager said load shedding implemented by Eskom recently had also affected the city’s ageing electricity infrastructure.

He said the incoming cold front may put more pressure on the substation.

De Jager urged residents of the city to switch off all unnecessary appliances in the event of an outage.

Thirteen substations have been budgeted for refurbishment in this financial year, while City Power would issue a tender to fix other aged substations.

City Power also indicated that it would improve its communication with residents on crucial issues such as electricity outages, whether planned or unplanned.