Electricity has finally been restored to seven suburbs and surrounding areas after residents spent four days without power.

The outage in Wilgeheuwel, Strubens Valley, Honeypark Ridge, Honeydew, Radiokop, Little Falls and Ruimsig began on July 5, leaving many households and businesses in the dark. Contractors were working at the fault site as City Power continued efforts to restore supply on Wednesday, July 8.

Throughout the day, the utility issued updates as repairs progressed. In its final update at 19:45, City Power reported that operators were on their way to continue repairs on the Christiaan de Wet network.

Residents later reported that electricity began returning at about 21:13 after repairs were completed and the network was tested, with other areas receiving their electricity supply at later stages.

In response to questions from the Roodepoort Northsider, City Power said the outage was traced to an underground cable fault between the Spaargeld Mini Substation (MSS) and Florin Road No 3.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said electricity supply was fully restored and that there was no outstanding repair work.

• Also read: Weltevreden Park power outage enters third day

Explaining why residents were without electricity for days, Mangena said technical teams were dealing with an unusually high number of faults across the Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre.

“The increased volume of faults, particularly on the medium-voltage [MV] network, placed significant pressure on available resources, resulting in extended repair and restoration times.”

He added that increased electricity demand during winter places additional strain on the network, making suburbs such as Wilgeheuwel, Weltevreden Park and Strubens Valley more susceptible to underground cable faults and network overloads.

Mangena said technicians located and repaired the fault before carrying out network testing to ensure it was safe to restore supply. He added that no additional faults or infrastructure damage were found during the repair process.

He also said it was not possible to provide residents with an estimated restoration time while repairs were underway because underground cable faults require fault location, excavation, repairs and testing before electricity can be safely restored.

In response to the question whether or not the incident also reflects the challenges associated with an ageing electricity network, Mangena said City Power will continue with maintenance and infrastructure upgrade programmes aimed at improving the reliability of the network. Residents have welcomed the repairs, even though they shared their frustrations with the response times through the various community groups.