Power remains out for parts of Weltevreden Park three days after an explosion at the Panorama Switching Station. City Power is continuing with repairs after technicians identified multiple network faults, but the utility has not provided an estimated restoration time.

The outage began on Monday, September 7, when City Power operators were dispatched to the station at about 11:00 following reports of an explosion.

According to a response shared by City Power with the Roodepoort Northsider, technicians found that a panel back-termination had flashed, damaging the termination supplying the Mosterdboom distributor.

Further testing identified cable faults between the Snelskaats Ring Main Unit and Snelskaats No 1 mini-substation, as well as between Panorama and Mosterdboom.

City Power’s general manager for Public Relations and Communication, Isaac Mangena, said the underlying cause of the termination failure was still being investigated.

“The termination failed and flashed, resulting in the explosion and subsequent damage to the Mosterdboom distributor,” Mangena said.

He said the relationship between the termination failure and the additional cable faults was still being assessed and that technicians were cleaning carbon residue, conducting electrical testing and fault-finding, and trenching to expose underground cables.

Mangena added that identified cable faults were being repaired and damaged equipment replaced, while a burnt panel breaker also required replacement.

The utility said it could not provide an estimated time of restoration because fault-finding, repairs and final testing still needed to be completed. Further faults found during testing could require additional work.

Restoration work underway

In an update issued at 16:00 on Tuesday, September 8, City Power said two load centres had been restored while technicians repaired the cable termination, and that the remaining two load centres would be restored once repairs were completed.

City Power estimates that about 50 load centres are connected to the affected network. Based on an estimated average of 50 customers per load centre, potentially about 1 000 customers could be affected, although the actual number varies according to the network configuration.

The latest outage comes after residents had already raised concerns about the infrastructure. A petition was launched in June by Ward 89 councillor Zander Shawe calling for the urgent replacement and modernisation of the station. Residents, businesses and community leaders in Panorama, Weltevreden Park, Allens Nek and surrounding areas are supporting the petition.

The petition calls for a replacement and modernisation programme, a clear implementation plan with timelines, immediate risk-reduction measures, improved communication and confirmation of funding.

In June, City Power described the station as being in ‘fair operational condition’, while acknowledging that it required increased operational oversight because of intermittent equipment reliability concerns.

Mangena said parts of the station are approximately 50 years old and confirmed that some breakers and switching components were not fully operational due to wear, post-fault assessments and protection coordination issues.

City Power said there were no confirmed capital upgrade or refurbishment projects for the station and no approved full replacement plan within its existing capital budgets at the time.

Resource shortages delay repairs

Shawe said residents were concerned about the restoration delays.

“They are taking a long time with all the outages because they have a shortage of teams and resources and a lot of outages,” he said.

The Roodepoort Northsider has approached City Power for comment on the claims made by Shawe, and updates about restoration will follow as more information becomes available.