The power outage was caused by a pole-mounted transformer at Eikenhof that caught fire.
Picture: iStock
A network failure at the Orlando switching station has knocked out electricity to large parts of southern and western Johannesburg, affecting customers across three service delivery centres, City Power said on Wednesday.
The utility said the fault developed after a pole-mounted transformer at Eikenhof caught fire in the early hours of the morning, tripping the Orlando switching station.
According to City Power, operators managed to restore the initial interruption, but a second fault then struck one of the Eikenhof breakers feeding the station.
“This fault continues to affect electricity supply across the network and remains the focus of our ongoing technical investigations,” the utility said.
City Power explained that the Orlando switching station feeds several substations across the city, which is why the fault spread so widely. “The incident has had a cascading impact across multiple substations and supply areas spanning three SDCs,” the statement read.
Technical teams were on site working to establish the cause and scale of the damage before any repairs could begin.
No timeline yet for restoration
City Power said it could not yet say when power would be back on.
“At this stage, we are unable to provide an estimated time for restoration.” The utility added that a timeline would only be given once investigations were complete and the extent of repairs known.
Some progress had been made, however. According to City Power, supply had already been returned to parts of Eikenhof and to Rand Water, allowing the water utility to resume pumping at a reduced capacity while the rest of the network remained down.
Areas affected
City Power listed the suburbs affected under each of the three service delivery centres. The Reuven centre covered:
- Kibler Park,
- Chrisville,
- Mayfield Park,
- Mondeor,
- Natureno,
- Eikenhof,
- Robertsham,
- Alveda Park,
- Ormonde,
- Comptonville,
- Meredale and surrounding areas.
The Lenasia centre affected:
- Eldorado Park,
- New Eldorado Park,
- Nancefield,
- Nirvana,
- Soweto and surrounding areas, supplied through the Nancefield, New Eldorado Park, Nirvana and Soweto substations.
The Hursthill centre covered:
- Brixton East,
- Riverlea,
- Crosby,
- Mayfair,
- Langlaagte and surrounding areas.
City Power acknowledged the disruption caused to households and businesses.
“We understand the significant inconvenience this outage has caused to households, businesses and critical services,” the utility said, noting that all available technical resources had been mobilised to restore power safely.
“We sincerely apologise to all affected customers for the inconvenience caused and thank them for their patience and understanding while we work to restore supply.”
