Eldorado Park electricity supply crisis ongoing

City Powers electricity distribution crisis in Eldorado Park is still ongoing. The power supplier said another fault had been detected at the Eldorado Park substation on the Goudkoppies Distributor.

Affected areas include Devland Industrial, Devland, Joshco flats, JW Treatment Plant.

“Repairs have started, and ETR is expected at 6pm, if all goes according to plan,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.

Eldorado Park electricity crisis

Repairs underway

The replacement of three Pole-Mounted Transformers at Lawley 2 and Vlakfontein will be done on Saturday and is expected to be complete by the afternoon – 3pm for Lawley, and 10pm for Vlakfontein.

Teams have resumed repairs of identified faults on the Eldoradopark:

• Walter Sisulu Distributor affecting Pimville Zone 9,
• Golf Course,
• Joshco Kliptown Flats, and
• Walter Sisulu Square

The material was collected on Saturday morning and the expected estimated time of return (ETR) is 4pm today.

Technical teams working across Nancefield, Eldorado Park, Soweto Local substations supply areas on Friday made tremendous progress, albeit with few manageable hiccups.

Theft and vandalism

Twelve distributors were lost due to rampant theft and vandalism which happened during the downtime when technicians were dealing with the fire at the Eldorado substation.

The six teams had worked around the clock to find and test cable and distributor faults, and replace damaged equipment and stolen cables.

The work covered both high voltage and localised low voltage individual escalations.

The teams were deployed by the Acting CEO Tshifularo Mashava as part of the solutions to deal with the outage backlogs in areas such as Freedom Park, Devland, Eldorado Park, Pimville Zone9, Goudkoppies, JW Treatment Plant, and Joshco Flats, among others.

98% of outages restored

Areas restored by Friday include Motswaledi, and Freedom Park North is 98% restored, while three pole-mounted transformers are to be replaced at Freedom Park East by 6pm on Saturday.

Teams attending Eldorado Park Proper completed the jointing work on Friday evening, but test technicians had picked another fault on Saturday morning which the contractor is busy with.

The estimated ETR is lunchtime.

“We have also attended to about 10 localised outages which were resolved including Anthena & 4th Ave, Mahonie Crescent, 32 Agaat str, Eldorado Park Proper, Diamant str, Topaas Str, Smarag Str, 1 Karensbeg Eldorado Park Ext 2,” said Mangena.

While most are back on, some are still affected by the current High Voltage outage that electricians are trying to repair.

“For continuity we have taken a decision not to bring new teams to relieve the ones already on the ground working. We are, however, factoring the rest time for teams to recharge to ensure seamless operation,” explained Mangena.

“While some of the ETRs were met, many we couldn’t as indicated due to, among others, further faults picked as we went along, collection of material, safety,” he added.

A substation fire in Eldorado Park on Good Friday left community members without power for some two weeks.

Rampant cable theft and vandalism at other stations in the area had complicated matters even further.

Compiled by Narissa Subramoney

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