Joburg CBD residents cautioned to avoid further outages

City Power has pleaded with residents and businesses in the Johannesburg CBD to drastically reduce their electricity consumption or risk facing further power outages.

This, as restoration efforts continue following a major infrastructure fire last week.

Technicians restored electricity to parts of Braamfontein on Wednesday after another temporary disruption on Tuesday caused by a flashover on the interconnector cables running between the Fort and Braamfontein substations.

“These interconnectors have been used as part of an interim measure to restore power supply, while the bigger project of replacing damaged cables continues,” City Power said.

Fire caused extensive cable damage.

The widespread outage originated from a fire that broke out on 1 May in an underground tunnel beneath the M1 Bridge near Smit Street.

The blaze severely damaged high-voltage transmission infrastructure, including 11kv and 88kv oil-filled cables connecting Fordsburg and Braamfontein substations.

On Tuesday, City Power isolated two damaged 11kv interconnector cables and completed repairs overnight.

Affected streets included Smit West, Showground, Nico Mostert, Juta, Wolmarans (East and West), Smit East, Jorrisen, De Korte, Ameshof, and surrounding areas.

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Restoration work underway

The utility warned that while electricity has been restored to all affected customers, the current setup is still temporary and vulnerable to overload.

“These interim solutions are not designed to carry massive amounts of load for an extended period of time,” it said.

“We strongly urge customers to lower their consumption to ensure that these cables can hold until we complete replacing the damaged infrastructure.”

City Power is currently replacing around 1 200 metres of damaged 88kv cable inside the M1 tunnel.

According to City Power, the Johannesburg Roads Agency has cleared the Carr Street entry point, allowing engineers to begin critical steps, including scaffolding construction, surface preparation, cable roller installation, and joint fitting.

“The full rehabilitation […] is expected to take approximately two weeks, subject to site conditions and environmental factors,” the statement added.

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Teams working ‘around the clock’

City Power said it had deployed all available resources to restore the supply safely and thanked residents for their patience.

“Our engineers, technicians, and support staff continue to work tirelessly around the clock to rebuild the resilience of the network and ensure the reliability of Johannesburg’s electricity supply.”

The public is urged to report any faults and outages via City Power’s customer service platforms.

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