Rietondale power outage set to end soon as new mini-substations installed
The ward councillor said that underground cables would need to be replaced to restore power.
A major power failure left Rietondale residents without power for at least four days this weekend.
The outage began after heavy rains on Friday caused a “ring” outage, meaning that the system tripped at multiple points.
Locals reported seeing smoke rising from a mini-substation at Rietondale Park, with the door of the substation box forced open by the explosion.
Around 23:00 on Friday, teams working at the trip site realised that two mini-substations, one on the corner of Soutpansberg and Nuffield roads, and another on the corner of Soutpansberg and Dale roads, would need to be replaced.
Ward councillor Frans Smith said that he could not provide an estimate of the time repairs would take, but confirmed that teams were on site and that damaged mini-substations were being replaced.
A resident who did not wish to the named told Rekord: “The people of Rietondale are very frustrated and it seems like the situation was not handled as a priority by the city.”
Smith visited the site and was told that the transformer was more than 50 years old and critically damaged.
He said that some underground cables were also damaged and needed to be replaced. He noted that a water pipe on the Dale Street side had been damaged and was hampering repair.
Replacement, according to Smith, was further delayed as a service provider tasked with collecting the new parts was involved in a collision.
Councillor Juanita du Plooy said that the head engineer on site told her that the repair team would have to cut across parts of Soutpansberg road to repair damaged power lines, and would communicate more details in due course.
By Monday afternoon, new mini-substations were being installed.
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