Power restored to some east homes following substation fire
Other areas remain in the dark while electricians work on the problem. To see the latest on your area.
Power was being restored to more areas in the eastern part of the Tshwane metro following a major outage.
Areas such as Silver Lakes, Wapadrand, Six Fountains, Willow Acres, Zwavelpoort and Equestria have been in the dark since Saturday, after the Wapadrand substation caught fire.
Utility services MMC Phillip Nel said the fire damaged panels providing power to the suburbs to the south.
He said the panels providing power to the north were affected significantly less.
He gave the following update of suburbs north of the substation:
– Six Fountains and Willow Acres – been switched back on after a faulty cable on the line was repaired.
– Silver Lakes – still off. This includes the Zwavelpoort and Tygerpoort overhead lines. They were also due to be switched on soon.
– The Equestria overhead line affecting plots on Vergelegen, Meerlust, Stellenberg – still off. The team was still fixing a pole that was damaged and once this has been done, switching at the substation would be done.
– Cura, Furrow Road and Meerlust Road – the area is off and the team is still investigating to find the fault causing the outage.
– Donkerhoek Line – The area is off and the team is still investigating to find the fault causing the outage.
– Wapadrand east of Solomon Mahlangu Road – still off. The team fixed a burned cable, but when they powered up the system, they identified new faults that were not visible when the power was off. The team was working to identify how many faults there were and only then would they determine how long it would take to fix.
– Wapadrand on the western side, Speek Street and surrounds – the area is still off and the team was still investigating to find the fault causing the outage.
“With regards to the suburbs on the southern side, Faerie Glen, Olympus and Boardwalk, I’d like to start by correcting the misconception that we are only prioritising the areas to the north,” Nel said.
“I would like to emphasise that the work in the north is not delaying the work in the south. This is a major outage and significant resources including multiple teams have been brought to work on the problem.”
Nel said the damaged panels affecting the north have all been taken out, the substation cleaned and prepared for the installation of the new panels today.
“Parallel to that, we have teams working on the cables that were damaged and need to be repaired as part of the total team.
“Our estimate is that by late tomorrow (Wednesday, 21 July) all the construction work and physical work should be done and we can energise that portion.”
He said a lot would depend on how long tests and repairs to any further faults once the system is energised would take.
“We will provide further feedback later this afternoon. Thank you again for your patience and our teams will continue to work day and night to resolve this issue till we get all areas back online.”
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