City Power teams at Hursthill are doing their best to serve customers when they experience electricity faults

The paper spent a few hours with a  technical team in Ward 87 to better understand the role and the challenges they face.

Siphiwe Maphumulo, operation manager at the Hursthill depo said, “When a customer’s power goes out, we understand how frustrating and difficult it can be and we try by all means to restore supply.”

Team leader Lucas Maluleka and electrician Simon Mboweni skilfully led their crew as they attended to a number of logged calls in and around Melville.

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One was at a house where the electricity pole had been sparking. Using the cherry picker yellow bucket to inspect the hardware it was clear that the overgrown bougainvillea had almost completely engulfed the infrastructure making it difficult to work on. Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo was notified to come and trim the foliage after technicians ensured the power supply was stable and secure.

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Another was a logged call for voltage fluctuations, often caused by loose connections. Unfortunately, nobody was home so the team was unable to check the property’s electricity box but an inspection was done on the street pole and the team would return the following day after they had spoken to the homeowner on the phone.

Maluleka said, “Our teams work 12-hour shifts and do so diligently but at times we face obstacles that are out of our hands, like not being able to access properties where calls have been logged. We will continue trying until the issue is resolved but it is not always as quickly as we would like.”

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This includes callouts where there is a fault with the underground cable which often requires collaboration with Johannesburg Roads Agency as pavements or roads need to be excavated. “In cases like this, we will often instal a temporary, but safe, line while the underground cable job is attended to in order to ensure electricity supply is restored.”

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He said teams are now allocated to specific areas so they are aware of ongoing problems and faults which enables them to better deal with them. “Our teams are building relationships with customers and learn area-specific issues so we can work methodically though matters that need attention rather than being sent all over the city.”

All jobs are tracked in a sophisticated online portal which keeps management and customers aware of development. If, for example, a job is marked as complete, but has not been resolved, the customer can immediately re-log the complaint which alerts ward councillors and management who will automatically escalate the job and enquiries made into why the call was closed.

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Ward 88 councillor Nicolene Jonker said, “City Power Hursthill does its best to have power restored as quickly as possible. Longer outages are usually from ‘dry cable joints’ where previous subcontractors had repaired cables without cable casings to safeguard it from rain.”

It was evident from this team, and others this reporter spoke to that technicians are keenly aware of the role they play in restoring quality of life for residents when their power is out. This is especially true during periods when Eskom has rolling blackouts, such as we are facing now, but over which City Power has no control.

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INFORMATION BLOCKS

Tips to help City Power work more efficiently

• If possible, move your power box to outside the wall to enable teams to access it without you needing to be there.
• If you have logged a call, but will be at work, try to arrange with a neighbour or someone you trust so access to your premises can be granted if needed.
• Trim and maintain foliage to avoid it damaging power supply poles.
• Check nothing has tripped the internal DB board.
• Check pre-paid customers have not run out of units.

Some of the more common reasons for faults logged

• Cable faults due to ageing infrastructure
• Other service providers damage wiring or underground cables when doing their work
• Lightening, heavy rain, strong winds
• Cable theft.

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