Weltevreden Park residents on Snelskaats Avenue who were left without electricity following a fault at the Panorama Switching Station have had their power restored after City Power traced the outage to an underground cable fault.

City Power public relations and communications general manager Isaac Mangena confirmed that electricity supply was restored on September 9 after the fault was found between the Snelskaats Ring Main Unit and the Snelskaats No 1 mini-substation.

The outage began on September 7 following a flashover at panels at the Panorama Switching Station. Mangena said technical teams initially attended to the affected panels, which required the removal of carbon residue, testing and repairs before the switching station could be safely restored.

However, customers on Snelskaats Avenue continued to experience an interruption in supply.

Undetected fault causes delays

Mangena said the Snelskaats Avenue outage presented a separate fault-finding challenge. According to the utility, the outage did not register on its system, while technical drawings indicated that the area had full supply, meaning technicians had to physically investigate the network to identify the cause.

An underground cable fault was eventually located between the Snelskaats Ring Main Unit and the Snelskaats No 1 mini-substation.

“The fault was repaired, and supply was restored after the required operational checks were completed,” said Mangena.

Ward councillor highlights resource shortage

The restoration followed concerns raised by Ward 89 councillor Zander Shawe about the time taken to resolve local power failures. He said City Power teams are taking long with all the outages because they have a shortage of teams and resources.

Asked whether a shortage of manpower, technical teams or materials had contributed to the delay, City Power rejected the claim.

“The delay in restoring supply to this particular area was solely due to the underground cable fault not being detected on the system,” said Mangena.

He said technical resources were attending to faults across the Panorama Switching Station and its associated network as required.

“Specialised personnel were involved in fault-finding, cable repairs, testing, switching and restoration, with teams deployed according to the nature and location of each fault,” he said.

Call to modernise ageing infrastructure

The outage comes after residents and community leaders launched a petition in June calling for the Panorama Switching Station to be replaced and modernised.

In an earlier response to concerns about the facility, City Power described the station as being in ‘fair operational condition’, while acknowledging ageing infrastructure and reduced system resilience.

Mangena also previously confirmed that some breakers and switching components were not fully operational due to wear, post-fault assessments and protection coordination issues.

City Power said the incident highlights the challenges associated with underground medium-voltage networks, particularly where a fault is not immediately reflected on the outage management system or network drawings.