Load-shedding woes: Is Vorna Valley ‘ground zero’ for power entities broken grid?

Residents of Vorna Valley are facing a persistent and frustrating challenge that has left some feeling like they are living in the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of the Eskom and City Power grid.

Every time there is scheduled load-shedding, they remain without electricity for extended periods, often beyond the officially scheduled outage duration. This has left many residents in a state of uncertainty and frustration.

Ward 132 councillor Annette Deppe has expressed concern over the unusual burden that the residents have faced in recent months.

“Despite Eskom and City Power explaining load-shedding across the country, Vorna Valley appears to be bearing an unusually heavy load.”

“Residents are grappling with over-capacity, insufficient resources, and vandalism of infrastructure. They experience prolonged power outages that deviate from the official load-shedding schedule.”

Metre boxes on Smuts Drive, Elizabeth Fry Street, Van Heerden Road and 7th Road, to mention a few routes, have been vandalised recently, some even twice in the past couple of weeks.

The metre box at Woodlands Estate was vandalised twice, forcing estate residents to put locks and a fence around it.

“This has led to increasing frustration among residents, who are demanding answers. Each time, a different story or excuse is offered, leaving the community in a state of uncertainty,” Deppe added.

“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.”

She has also expressed her concern over the lack of a credible explanation for the situation.

“As a councillor, I am 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 any more development plans for the area.”

Deppe has also urged power entities to take immediate action to resolve these issues and provide the community with the reliable power supply they deserve.

Eskom addresses post-load shedding supply restoration delays.

According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the Vorna Valley substation, which is situated in the area, is load-shed by Eskom, not City Power.

“The delay is on Eskom’s side. Sometimes the breaker fails to close remotely, forcing them to dispatch an operator to physically close the station.”

Mangena mentioned that Eskom is aware of the technical challenge on their site and is working to resolve it permanently.

However, prolonged power outages lead to an increase in vandalism of the entities’ infrastructures, and even though City Power is not responsible for the transformer, they still respond to residents’ log calls about metre boxers, electric poles, mini-substations and other issues that are unrelated to the transformer power outages.

As a result, City Power officials have been labouring week after week to repair vandalised meter boxes and mini-substations in Vorna Valley and Halfway Gardens.

Gauteng Eskom spokesperson Amanda Qithi confirmed the entity is aware of issues in the area and is pleased to advise that it has been addressed already.

“We had a challenge of the breaker motor that burnt at Vorna Valley substation, and we, therefore, could not remotely close and open the breakers on and after load-shedding,” said Qithi.

“We had further challenges with spares to replace the damaged motor and we had to send an operator to the substation to manually close the breaker. We have now changed the load-shedding operating point until spares have been sourced and replaced in the past two weeks.

“As such we believe that the switching back times from the control centre have not been delayed after load-shedding in the past weeks.”

There are certain instances where Eskom in Gauteng experiences technical challenges while restoring supply post-load-shedding. While Eskom can identify the fault on most occasions, there are times when the error is not detected on the system.

The supply restoration process is effected remotely, but when a fault occurs the operation has to be conducted on-site, therefore causing delays in the restoration of supply.

Eskom apologises for the inconvenience caused during such occasions and further pleads for patience as the Gauteng team works on ensuring that such faults are quickly identified and resolved.

Use the following channels to contact Eskom:
– Download the self-help ‘MyEskom Customer’ App.
– Access the Alfred chatbot via the link https://Alfred.Eskom.co.za/chatroom
– Bill-related enquiries can be checked online at csonline.eskom.co.za.
– Call Eskom Contact Centre on 08600 37566, Monday to Saturday from 08:00–16:00.

Important to note:
– Restoration Time: 30 minutes is added post-load-shedding to allow for the restoration process to take place.
– Log a fault: If supply is not restored after 30 minutes of the scheduled time of restoration, please log a fault using the self-help channels.
– Be cautious: All appliances must be treated as live during load-shedding for your safety.
– Overall, the situation in Vorna Valley remains critical, with residents facing prolonged and unpredictable power outages.

Related Article: Driving in the dark: loadshedding tips