After three days of darkness, power was restored to several Germiston suburbs on Thursday night.
The power supply was interrupted just after 7am, last Tuesday morning, after businesses surrounding the Elsburg Substation heard a loud bang.
The cause of the bang was an explosion and building collapse at the Elsburg Substation in Ostend Road.
The affected areas included, but were not limited to, Delville, Collin Wade, the industrial area of Germiston South, Parkhill Gardens, Tedstoneville, industrial areas fed from Enterprise, and parts of Hazeldene, Germiston South, Elsburg and the Germiston CBD.
The GCN visited the scene and spoke to Ekurhuleni chief area engineer Peter Khunou who explained an investigation had been launched to discover the cause of the explosion.
ALSO READ: Elsburg Substation explosion and building collapse leads to power outage
“We are not sure when exactly the explosion happened or what the cause was,” Khunou said.
“We are hoping to have more answers soon.”
The metro first estimated that power would be restored by 9am on Wednesday, however, this deadline came and went.
“Teams from the metro were called to the scene and worked throughout the day to remove the debris and the roof of the damaged building so that technicians could begin testing the equipment still on site,” explained Ward 39 councillor Alta de Beer, who visited the site several times.
“During testing it was discovered that the existing equipment was beyond repair and new equipment had to be sourced, leading to delays.
“Replacement equipment was delivered to the site on Wednesday morning but installation and commissioning of the new equipment took hours.”
ALSO READ: Update – Power restoration delayed at Elsburg Substation, as new equipment is sourced
The team continued to work through the night with the deadline for restoration being pushed further and further back.
“The team on site began switching power back on slowly from 6.30am on Thursday morning,” de Beer said.
“The power had to be turned on gradually so as not to overload the new equipment and to allow the DC batteries on site time to charge.
“They simply could not switch everything on at the same time.”
The repairs were delayed further when further testing had to be carried out.
“Testing had to be done on Thursday afternoon to establish the network’s integrity as there was an alleged attempted cable theft while the power was off,” said de Beer.
Suburbs finally came back online at 9pm on Thursday night, with the exception of Delville’s industrial area.
“Power supply has been reinstated to all affected areas, except for Delville industrial area, but metro technicians are attending to it.
“The stability of the grid has improved following the installation of new equipment at the station,” Themba Gadebe, spokesperson for the metro, said.
The power to the Delville industrial area has since been restored.
Despite numerous requests from the GCN to the metro as to the cause of the explosion, no comment was received at the time of going to press.
Community speak out following days without power:
- Pamela Brandon-Kieser: “I have to lose a day’s pay because of this incompetence; my fridges have defrosted and I will most likely have to replace everything in them.
“My question now is who will compensate us for the money that we are paying, if you put in a claim and they take months to sort it out. I know it wasn’t anyone’s fault, but for goodness sake, this should have been sorted out quicker.”
- Zaine Bouwer: “It is now 12 hours after the 8pm deadline, and still no power. What is the new time now again? Just lies.”
- Louis and Petro Snyman: “It is nearly 8am on Thursday and the power is still not restored. Who is going to pay for the meat in our fridge? We need answers.”
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