Many residents were left without power after a substation in Centurion was struck by lightning and caught fire following a storm on Friday evening.
The Brakfontein substation caught on fire at around 22:00, said DA ward councillor Cindy Billson.
Areas affected include Amberfield, Heuweloord, Rooihuiskraal north (towards the Capensis substation), Hennopspark and Wierdapark.
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Brakfontein Transformer R burnt due to Lightning. Most of the suburbs like Heuweloord, Rooihuiskraal, The Reeds, etc. will experience power outage. Our team will work hard to restore power to the affected areas pic.twitter.com/Lf33tXif6v
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) February 23, 2019
“This is a major substation and is not an issue that would be resolved in a couple of hours,” Billson said.
She said the assessment of the damage at the substation was only done on Saturday morning.
“Preliminary feedback received was that two of the six phases of the Brakfontein substation was damaged by the fire,” she said.
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She said some areas had been restored, but added that there was a serious problem with the capacity.
“They are now assessing the two phases damaged to see if they can provide electricity to the affected areas,” she said.
The estimated time of when power would be restored was unclear at the time of going to press.
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