The City of Ekurhuleni stated that contaminated oil in the Rietfontein sub-station cable network has rendered the network unsafe to be commissioned for use.

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“The sub-station was severely affected by the lightning storm in the Kempton Park area. During follow-up operations to restore power supply using the contingency network, the maintenance team identified signs of oil contamination in the high voltage cable network,” said CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini.

He said the oil was sampled and sent for analysis at a laboratory.

“The laboratory results returned this morning, February 17, and they were not favourable. The oil in the system was contaminated and therefore rendered the cable network unsafe to be commissioned for use.

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“The city’s energy engineers are on site repairing the damages at the substation and is flushing out the contaminated oil from the system.

“In the absence of other impeding conditions on the network, the team will begin pumping decontaminated oil into the system once the flushing process is complete,” said Dlamini.

Executive Mayor Ald Tania Campbell and the MMC for Water, Sanitation and Energy, Clr Senzi Sibeko, stated that efforts to ensure a sustainable solution to energy supply include the implementation of the city’s energy masterplan. The replacement of the outdated oil insulated cable technology forms part of this plan.