Substation trip has city in darkness

THE trip of a switch at one of Buffalo City Metro’s substations caused a power outage in large parts of the metro yesterday.

Vincent, Amalinda, Cambridge, Hemingways, Dorchester Heights and some parts of Southernwood were without power, said Buffalo City spokesman Samkelo Ngwenya.

The main switch of the Stafford substation had tripped, he added.

“Our technicians were able to identify, isolate and resolve the problem.

“They had to switch off some of the other substations to get back on the grid, and are at the stage of re-energizing and switching back various areas.

“This is going to take a little bit of time as we have to manage it in increments.

“BCM would like to apologise for the inconvenience, and also caution that all appliances must be switched off.

“Kindly contact our call centre for more updates.”

The municipality warned consumers on social media to handle all appliances and other electrical apparatus with caution during this period and advised consumers to disconnect all non-essential appliances from the supply to prevent damage when power is restored.

To report electricity faults and outages call (043) 050-5683.

● The Dispatch called the fault line at 7.10pm and was told that “half the city” was still without power.