The community of Malvern bore the brunt of a nearly two-day blackout after the City Power substation, located at 300 Persimmon Street, caught fire on July 15.
“The residents of Persimmon Street and Malvern have been incredibly patient during a time of persistent outages.
“As frustrating as it can get, this is the best way to approach this problem as it does not help to take out one’s frustrations on the contractors who are tasked with repairing the problem,” said Ward 118 Clr Neuren Pietersen.
“Sometimes residents accuse the contractors of not knowing what they are doing. This is unfair as sometimes the network has been breached and may also be overloaded as a result of illegal building activity.
“Additional homes that have not been planned for place an extraordinary load on the system, causing it to fail,” he added.
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City Power said the cause of the fire was overloading as a result of illegal backrooms in the vicinity of the substation.
“The contractor was performing a test on the substation on the day in question, and after finding that all was clear, proceeded to replace fuses,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
“As he was testing to see if all customers had power, there was a big bang in the cable due to an in-rush current or overload. He ran out and the LV board started burning.”
Mangena said repairs were carried out on July 16, but cables later caught fire and burned, this time, according to him, as a result of peak-hour overload.
“The outages were due to overloading of the network due to backyard rooms, cable theft, vandalism and illegal connections.
“This overloading impacts the performance of our infrastructure, leading to several transformers, cables, and mini substations exploding or burning,” he said.
Pietersen blamed the practice of illegal power connections for the power failures and outages.
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“Sometimes residents ask why the network cannot be upgraded to handle the extra demand. This can be done, but only via ordered channels.
“If Malvern is to be densified and serviced at the same time, then the new buildings erected must go through the planning department so that the city can plan for upgrades that are funded through the higher rates and taxes. These are the only sustainable manners in which the city can deliver and maintain bulk infrastructure,” said Pietersen.
In response to the electricity situation and building control in Malvern, a public meeting was held at Malvern Lights on July 27.
City Power urged residents to report faults to the City of Joburg’s Walk-in Multipurpose Centres, where they can enquire during working hours.
Residents can also go to www.citypower.mobi
