EThekwini power outage strikes

A TRIP at a Durban North substation was identified as the cause of a power outage which affected several areas in and around Durban for about an hour yesterday.

The eThekwini Municipality confirmed that their technicians were working to restore power to affected areas in the city.

These included Durban North, the Berea and parts of the Durban CBD, the municipality said in a statement.

Social media users also alerted The Mercury to the outage on Twitter.

“The power outage was a result of a trip experienced at the Durban North substation which receives electricity from Eskom. While the cause of the trip will be investigated, the municipality is focusing on restoring power to all affected areas,” the city said in a statement.

Although power had been restored in most areas at the time the statement was released, some parts around City Hall in the CBD were still affected.

While some companies located on North Coast Road reported little to no impact on their business, others said the outage had slowed operations down.

Panelbeater Big Five Panel and Paint said their operations had stopped for about an hour as they were unable to use their computers and other equipment. Time lost, said a company representative, affected their bottom line.

Residents were urged to report power outages to the Electricity Contact Centre on 080 1313 111.