City Power has confirmed that recent power outages in Ward 126 and neighbouring Ward 134 may become an issue of the past.
Irate residents have been manually tabulating the constant unplanned electricity outages from mid-January to early August. Their spreadsheet reveals electricity had been out a total of 305.8 hours in the roughly seven-month window, excluding the rolling blackouts imposed by the power utilities. Ward 126 councillor David Brand explained that the regular surges have caused the frequent outages, especially after load-shedding restorations.
The municipal entity is awaiting the delivery of a new 2.5km long aluminium cable that will alleviate the strain on the fragile network stretching across the two wards.
“The load has been heavy with new developments and winter, with everyone having their heaters and geysers on. One of the cables couldn’t carry the load and it struggled whenever power came back after load-shedding,” Brand elaborated.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena added, “The ageing network had suffered the cable’s weakest link during the frequent load-shedding switching, and cable failure rate was high.”
“We would like to confirm that the network is reasonably stable after a few more cables were returned to normal configurations. We have one more circuit to work on; we are only waiting for the delivery of a 2.5km cable. The process to acquire such has been initiated. City Power is only waiting for a delivery and once received the work will commence.”
Councillor Brand’s Ward 134 counterpart, Devon Steenkamp, explained the payoff and sacrifices of an aluminium cable.
“The cons are lesser quality than copper cables, therefore with load-shedding it can have more of an effect in shortening the cable lifetime span and can blow more easily. The pros of switching to aluminium is that it can deter and decrease the amount of cable theft that is plaguing the city,” said Steenkamp.
The City of Johannesburg’s multi-party government is on a mission to deliver on their seven principles, and a stable electricity supply is part of getting the basics right.
Active residents are encouraged to report essential infrastructure-related matters to City Power’s Security Control on 011 490 7900/ 7911/ 7553, via WhatsApp on 083 579 4497 or to contact the police, JMPD or their neighbourhood security structures.
