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Johannesburg in the dark: City Power overwhelmed by outage calls
Parts of Johannesburg are still without electricity. City Power said outage repairs are delayed due to rainfall and stage 6 load shedding.
Repairs underway at Wemmer substation. Photo: City Power
Large parts of Johannesburg have been left in the dark on Tuesday as City Power experienced a high volume of outage calls. The outages were exacerbated by the stage 6 load shedding currently in place.
City Power said technicians are attending to the various breakdowns throughout the city in an attempt to restore power to affected areas.
Widespread outages
City Power asked the public to “be kind to technicians” when going to the sites where repairs are underway.
“Screaming and shouting at them and the team leaders does not assist, especially since some of them have spent days and sleepless nights on site,” the power utility’s relationship manager said in a statement.
“Give them words of encouragement instead of breaking them down.”
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Stage 6 load shedding
One of the reasons for the delay in repairs was load shedding, coupled with heavy rainfall over the weekend which “stagnated the speedy completion of repairs”.
This was after Eskom implemented stage 6 load shedding until further notice.
“Since Sunday afternoon, a generating unit each at Arnot, Hendrina, Lethabo and Majuba, as well as two units at Camden Power Station have suffered breakdowns and taken offline for repairs,” Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said on Monday evening.
Two additional generating units at the Lethabo Power Station were also shut down “due to coal constraints as the New Vaal Mine that is supplying the station has been unable to deliver the expected amount of coal”.
Joburg South outages
On Monday evening, more than 500 outage calls were recorded for Turffontein, parts of Kenilworth, and the Wemmer substation in Johannesburg South.
Meanwhile, in the inner city, residents in Malvern, Orange Grove, Bezuidenhout Valley, Jeppestown and Troyeville have been without electricity for more than 24 hours.
Technicians identified the cause of the outage at the Cydna substation. At the time of publishing, 88% of the supply had been restored.
Three load centres – on Oxford Street, Federation Hill in Parktown, and 11th Avenue in Houghton – were still offline. The estimated time of return is 9pm if everything goes according to plan.
That said, City Power warns the wet weather may cause the repair process to take longer than planned.
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Midrand outages
Even though there were no outages reported in Midrand as of Tuesday morning, City Power said technicians were attending to 36 low-voltage calls.
Residents in the following areas are requested to use electricity sparingly:
- Noordwyk
- Modderfontein
- Mayibuye
- Rabie Ridge Ext 5
- Klipfontein
- Halfway House
- Longmeadow
City Power assured residents in these areas that they are doing everything possible to restore electricity as quickly as possible.
Roodepoort outages
In Roodepoort, technicians attempted to get as much done before load shedding kicked in at 10am, as they would not be able to locate faults or test cables during the rolling blackouts.
The major outages in Roodepoort affect residents in the following areas:
- Wilgeheuwel and Honeydew Ridge and surrounds
- Reyger Street, Mosega, Quellerina and surrounds
- Fleurhof
- Tshepisong
- Roodepoort CBD
- Florida, Princess and surrounds.
As of Monday evening, City Power technicians restored 99% of power at the Panorama switching station on Jim Fouche Road.
Other power stations still in the queue included the Domkrag switching station in Robertville and the Glen Lea substation in Fleurhof.
Planned power outages
A planned power interruption is scheduled for the Beyers Naude substation on Sunday, 26 February, from 8am until 4pm. The affected areas are:
- Randpark Ridge Extensions 1, 2, 13, 18, 23, 24, 25, 41
- Boskruin Extensions 4, 9, 10
- Kelland
City Power said this outage is “necessary to do essential maintenance work on the network”.
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