A GLENWOOD resident is dismayed and frustrated by the continued power outages at his home in Evans Road, and is still waiting for clarification from the municipality as to what is causing these almost daily surges and outages.
Arnold Johnston said he and his wife had lived in their home since 1994, and for many years have experienced unscheduled electricity outages.
“Outages are erratic, with power going off for around an hour at night, and there are surges during the day when everything goes out, for different periods of time. It is very sporadic and very frustrating,” he said.
Johnston contacted Berea Mail in March after experiencing an outage which lasted from before midday on a Friday until 10pm that night.
“The power came on for about an hour, before going off, and then came back on sometime during the night. The following days, it just kept tripping for short periods about half a dozen times. In April we had one day where the power was off from 2am to 10am,” he said.
Johnston said when he contacted the control room for the area, he was told that there was an MV cable fault, which was not the first time he had been given this explanation.
At the end of May, Johnston said they had experienced power surges and power dips for three days resulting in damage to his computer which had to be replaced.
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“When the power is not on, we have to resort to using a petrol generator, which is extremely expensive for us as pensioners. The outages also affect our appliances and our fridges are not sounding happy. On top of this, we have lost the contents of our fridges and freezes due to length power outages. The costs we are incurring are exorbitant,” he said.
Johnston said although the duration of the power outages had improved over the past few months, he still wanted an explanation as to what was going on. He said he had made contact with officials in the Electricity Department on many occasions, but was still waiting on a response.
In March, ward councillor Mmabatho Tembe contacted the City Manager, Deputy City Manager and department heads for clarification as to the cause of power outages, and to ask for urgent intervention by the City.
Tembe also enquired as to when the power station at the intersection of Bulwer and Clark Roads would be operational and queried how often the substations in the area were being maintained as the main reason for outages was MV cable faults.
Tembe was informed that it would take another three years before the power station was functional, and was told it would however not curb the power outages in the area.
Speaking to Berea Mail this week, Tembe said: “I have been told there is sufficient power in the area, however I will contact the Electricity Department to look into what the cause of the outages is.”
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