Answer for Arbor Park power failures

Madam – I am writing this letter to the Newcastle Advertiser in the hope that I will get answers to the continuous power failures in Arbor Park and other areas.

Firstly, how does one contact the person in charge at the Electricity Department as said person always seems to be out of the office or at a meeting and never returns calls.

Secondly, referring to the power failure at about 5am on March 5 where there was continuous tripping before power was restored (at

about 6.30am) where it appeared that two phases were not operative, as only 190 volts were registered and not full power. On advising the operator of the problem he undertook to inform the people working on the problem and then full power was finally restored at about 7am.

I wanted to personally speak to someone at the Electricity Department, as my concern was that the power on the lower voltage could damage household electrical equipment. I was given a name, John, and a cell phone number but to no avail! No reply was forthcoming!!

A third incident was the power failure at about 9pm on March 7. Again, a number of trippings before power was restored at about 12.10pm. I intend to keep a more accurate record of future power failures as they occur. I would like to know whether there is any way the Elec. Dept. is able, (on the available equipment) to check that all phases are connected and that all voltages are correct when power has been restored?

As referred to in the above, can a reliable contact number perhaps be made available for the general public to get information regarding the power failure once it has occurred?

A concerned Arbor Park resident

Response from Lindile Zincume, SED Electrical/Mechanical Services:

Dear Concerned Resident

On the first concern, please accept our apologies that you have not been able to access the head of department, please note that the head of department returns all calls that have been given to him.

If your call has not been returned it may be that the head of department has never been informed of such. Your contact details will be obtained and an effort would be made to get in touch with you.

Regarding your second and third concern, we wish to state that it is regrettable that our Arbor Park network is not yet functioning optimally. This is due to a number of cable faults that we have experienced in the area, sometimes exacerbated by adverse weather conditions

We are continuously working to improve the reliability of the network by renewing our cable network and revising our protection and control settings to ensure that minimum customers are affected during a fault condition. From time to time we experience low voltage on the network due to the strain on the network and this is usually overcome, depending on the root cause, by tapping the transformer up.

The department has all the necessary tools to work on the network and is also investing on the upgrade of its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to be able to access data easily on the network behaviour.

We have employed control room operators whose primary function is to perform the department’s customer liaison whereby they log all faults reported and give feedback to customers who have made the reports.

The department’s contact numbers are 034 312 1296 and email address: electric@newcastle.gov.za