Ext 5 sub-station in eMbalenhle gets new panels
The mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma, said during his state of the municipality address in June that the municipality is tackling the electricity crisis of eMbalenhle.
Sasol and the Govan Mbeki Municipality installed new electricity panels for the Ext 5 sub-station in eMbalenhle from Monday, August 1.
This was a four-day project that left residents of extensions 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25 and 26 without electricity for hours.
The mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma, said during his state of the municipality address in June that the municipality is tackling the electricity crisis of eMbalenhle.
Sasol appointed a contractor to install new panels at the Ext 5 sub-station and they had already completed the refurbishment of the ring 3 sub-station.
After the arrival of a mobile transformer at the Bracken sub-station in July last year, many extensions were disconnected from the overloaded Ext 5 sub-station and connected to the mobile transformer.
These are extensions 4,9,12,15, part of Ext 14 and 18 (Wellas).
The community then experienced less municipal load-shedding unless there was a breakdown or faulty transformers.
The municipality said they were reducing the overloading of Ext 5 which was still under pressure because of consumption and electricity theft.
Zuma also said there was a critical need for the refurbishment and upgrading of electrical infrastructure with constant planned maintenance as it is overused due to high demand and thus exceeding the Notified Maximum Demand in eMbalenhle.
He said the municipality is facing multiple electricity challenges, including demand and supply imbalances, ageing infrastructure, services backlog, cost recovery, insufficiencies and overall lack of funding.
Zuma also said during his address that the current lack of capacity in eMbalenhle is identified as a huge crisis and the municipality’s financial constraints have further compromised the ability to meet the electricity demand and the municipality is applying load-shedding to manage electricity demand.
Zuma visited the eMbalenhle Ext 5 sub-station on Wednesday, August 3, to monitor the progress of the work being carried out.
He commended Sasol’s service provider for working on the upgrades and maintenance of the sub-station.
He said this forms part of the municipality’s ongoing efforts toward ensuring that residents receive uninterrupted and reliable power supply at all times.
The electricity supply was restored on Thursday, August 4, when panel installation work was completed.
