Is Vorna Valley ‘ground zero’ for City Power’s broken grid?
Ward 132 councillor Annette Deppe says Vorna Valley residents want answers from Eskom and City Power.
Vorna Valley residents could be forgiven for believing that they live in the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of the City Power grid because every time the area gets load-shedding, their power just ‘disappears’ for at least another hour, sometimes more.
This is according to Ward 132 councillor Annette Deppe, who added that while everyone is tired of the lame excuses Eskom and City Power offer for South Africa’s continued load-shedding woes, Vorna Valley residents seem to be really carrying one of the heaviest loads.
“Residents in my ward – particularly Vorna Valley – can never rely on their power only being off for two hours as per the schedule. They have to contend with at least another hour, often more than two hours, before power is restored. And it’s always a different story, another excuse. We are ‘ground zero’, the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ where power just disappears, never to be seen again. And no one can offer any credible explanation,” said Deppe.
She said as the ward councillor, she was pleading with Eskom and City Power to urgently undertake a comprehensive audit to evaluate what the challenges are in Vorna Valley – and address them, before approving more development plans for the area.
“Vorna Valley is already over-capacitated, under-resourced and the infrastructure is collapsing. Residents are getting more and more angry, and rightfully so. They want answers – and so do I,” concluded Deppe in a statement.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said their teams continue to work tirelessly in ensuring that the power supply is restored timeously to all customers, post every scheduled loadshedding.
“Despite being part of our area of power supply, the Vorna Valley substation is loadshed by Eskom and not City Power. City Power will continue to endeavor that all its customers do not experience longer outages than they should,” said Mangena.
He said in mitigating against the possible effect of loadshedding, cutormers are urged to unplug heavy appliances at least 15 minutes before restoration after loadshedding as this will avoid potential trips and allow the load to be stable.
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