Second week of rotational blackouts for Boksburg
Businesses are bemoaning the delays to resolve the power issue, saying the power situation has resulted in the cost of doing business skyrocketing as they have to resort to generators to power their factories.
Thousands of Boksburg households and businesses continue to bear the brunt of the Anderbolt substation explosion, which has, on top of load-shedding, left large parts of Boksburg without stable power for more than a week now.
The explosion occurred on the afternoon of June 19 and led to an outage affecting crucial supply points to large parts of Boksburg North.
These areas include Anderbolt residential and factories, Beyers Park residential and factories, North Rand Road factories, Ravenswood and the Birchwood Hotel.
The metro has provided only sketchy information on the work to repair the facility, saying ‘work is still going ahead’.
However, if the information gathered is anything to go by, residents in the affected areas may have to endure further prolonged rotational power outages, while the metro is battling to get some of the replacement material to bring significant electricity supply stability to the affected areas.
Due to the large extent of the damage to the power grid, the city subsequently introduced 10-hour load reduction measures to protect its system and to ensure a balanced supply of power in the affected areas.
From that time on, both residential areas are receiving power supply only between 18:00 to 08:00, while factories are getting power from 08:00 to 18:00.
The good news, however, is that the metro’s Energy Department has so far managed to replace the extensively damaged 11kv panels, but is battling to procure the required power cables to complete the repair, according to Ward 22 Clr Madelaine Muller.
“The reason for the delays is that the department is battling to source the 630mm cables needed to bring significant electricity supply stability to all the affected areas. However, the department told me that they are exploring various options to restore power as soon as possible,” said Muller.
“I would like to stress that it is a priority for us to get the businesses up and running as we do understand that they are the bread basket of Ward 22.
“I understand the frustration of all the affected residents, especially those that are without power during the day. I apologise on behalf of the City of Ekurhuleni that it is taking so long to resolve this issue.”
Muller shared an update shortly afterwards on social media saying she had received confirmation from the energy department has finally managed to find the required cables, and are expected to be delivered this afternoon.
“The department has also discovered another challenge, the transformer is leaking oil and that will have to be repaired first. They have started with the repairs, so if everything goes well and there are no further incidents then power should be restored and back to normal by Friday.
“There are also reports of vandalism to a power box affecting Turf, Kent and Atlas roads. The department is aware of that and will need to install a new ringway unit, and repairs should be completed by Monday.”
Businesses bemoan days of erratic power supply
Business operators are bemoaning the delays to resolve the power issue, saying the electricity situation has resulted in the cost of doing business skyrocketing as they have to resort to generators to power their factories, especially those that do the night shift as well.
Some of the businesses in Anderbolt said they are still battling to clear the backlog created when they were left without power for days before the load reduction was introduced.
MIA Gas Suppliers’ Shaun McLaren said: “It was very difficult to operate without power for three days. We have had to use our generator, but it’s not big enough to run everything you need, and with the generator, we have to spend a lot of money on fuel.”
International Panelbeaters & Spraypainters’ Mariette Swanepoel said: “We have been without electricity from the day of the explosion (June 19) until when we arrived this morning (June 26).
“We were initially told that the power will come back on Thursday (June 22), but it didn’t come. We have all these days been using a generator, which doesn’t supply enough power to do all our work here. We are so behind with our work, and even with the measures put in place (rotational outages) we are not 100% sure if the power has now stabilised or the system may fail to keep the lights on.”
Voli Engineering’s Anna Ntladi said: “We struggled a lot last week without power from Monday to Thursday, but I can say our situation is not as bad as those who operate 24-hour shifts. It’s very bad for the economy when electricity is not available because there is no production and that means no income to pay staff.”
Frustration
What our readers had to say on Facebook:
Cynthia De Klerk: I personally think it’s not that they can’t find cable, they can’t afford the cable. It’s been a week already. The funny thing is we had electricity this weekend and there weren’t problems, come Monday boom nothing! I work a full day just to go home to have no electricity.
Venetia Lombaard: Our power has not been on since last week Monday! We are in Dunswart next to Total Garage and Dunswart Post Office.
Also Read: Power update for Anderbolt residents, businesses
