Residents of Salt Rock, Sheffield, and Fox Hill were left in the dark for large parts of the weekend and continuing through Monday during a major power outage.

KwaDukuza executive director Sibusiso Jali said the outage was sparked by the lightning storm and was sorted out on Monday.

“There was a major issue caused by the lightning which affected the overhead line from the Sheffield substation.

“As a result, the current transformer which is used to measure and produce current, burnt out.

“We called in specialists on Monday morning and the instrument was replaced between 8am and 5pm, which is why there was no electricity in the areas during this time.”

Also read: KwaDukuza Municipality loses R18 million electricity grant

DA ward 22 councillor Malcolm Hubner said the outage lasted for most of Sunday because the electricians were trying to find a way to redirect electricity.

“They were trying to balance the load from the various electricity feeds so that residents could have electricity but they were not actually able to fix the problem until Monday. This is why the power kept tripping.”

Electricity blackouts have been an ongoing problem in the greater Salt Rock area with almost weekly outages throughout 2018.

Jali previously told the Courier earlier this month that work was underway to find and fix the problem at the R33 million substation installed at Salt Rock in 2014.

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