Electricity will be restored on Thursday evening in some areas in the east of Pretoria should no faults be found during testing.
This was according to utility service MMC Phillip Nel who said teams of electricians have been working day and night to make repairs to a burnt substation.
The substation supplying energy to Wapadrand, Faerie Glen, Olympus, Equestria, Silverlakes and Tygerpoort caught fire on Saturday morning leaving residents in the dark since then.
“I am pleased to inform residents that as promised yesterday we have concluded the installation of the panels and energised the transformers at Wapadrand,” Nel said.
“This is a critical first step in restoring power as we now focus on repairing damaged cables.”
He said it has been confirmed that the fire damaged cables heading towards Koedoeberg and Faerie Glen.
Lombardy, Cura, Furrow, Vergelegen, Meerlust including the Equestria Retirement Village as well as Stellenberg areas were expected to get power at 18:00 on Thursday.
“There is a lot of cable work to be done adjacent to the substation where all the cables lie together in the same trench. For safety purposes, we cannot switch those cables on until the work on all the cables has been completed,” he said.
“For the remainder of the damaged cables going towards Wapadrand (East and West), Koedoeberg and Faerie Glen that need to be repaired, the estimated time we can energise is around midnight tonight.”
Mayor Randall Williams was part of the team assessing progress at the substation along with various ward councillors.
Nel said the core priority has been to evaluate progress on the repairs to the cables in the area.
“These estimated times for repair are contingent on no further faults being found as the energising, testing and repair of the system continues.
“We will be back here at the site this evening for a further update and to confirm the progress that has been made,” he said.
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