Residents in Blairgowrie, Ferndale and Bordeaux experienced disruptions in their power supply over the past few days, prompting City Power to address the issue. The outages were due to a combination of planned maintenance and unforeseen cable faults.
According to Isaac Mangena, spokesperson for City Power, a planned maintenance project was scheduled for April 15, at the Bordeaux substation. The maintenance aimed to conduct essential work on the substation, which supplies power to Ferndale, Bordeaux, and Blairgowrie. Mangena noted that customers and local councillors were notified about the planned interruption in advance.
“Our team successfully conducted maintenance work, and the power supply was restored just after 17:00,” Mangena stated. However, he added that approximately two hours later, the power supply tripped due to a cable fault on the circuit. Despite swift responses from operators, the full power supply was only restored the following afternoon.
“We apologise to all customers affected by this prolonged unplanned power outage in Ferndale, Bordeaux, and Blairgowrie,” Mangena said. He also urged customers to unplug appliances during outages to prevent inrush current upon restoration and advised using electricity sparingly to avoid overloading the network.
Ward 102 councillor Lucinda Harman expressed her concern over the inconvenience caused by the outages. “In my ward alone there have been around five outages running concurrently and it has been difficult to keep up. There have been multiple problems going on affecting big areas. Several businesses were affected including an old age home.”
While Mangena explained that power was restored on April 16, Harman says that some areas remained in the dark for much longer. “Some of the areas came back on the 16th, but others were off from the morning of the 15th to around lunchtime on the 18th.
In light of this issue, City Power reassured residents that measures are being taken to prevent similar incidents in the future. He emphasised their commitment to providing reliable electricity services to the affected areas.
For further inquiries, residents are encouraged to contact City Power’s customer service hotline on 0800 00 3156.
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