City Power responds to concerns over neglected substation
The power utility company acknowledges the oversight and promised a swift action to rectify the situation and delivered.
After months of public outcry and complaints from Bryanston resident Wendy Davidson, City Power has finally responded to the inquiry about the unattended substation environment that has been a source of concern.
In a detailed response, City Power acknowledged the neglect and outlined their steps to address the issues. The spokesperson for City Power, Isaac Mangena, stated, “We are aware of the condition of the substation and the potential risks that lack of maintenance around our substations can pose; for example, vagrants could break into our substations and vandalise our infrastructure.”
He added that this is why their teams conduct site inspections from time to time and address any potential risks that may be identified.
“Our maintenance team conducts site inspections at six-month intervals to see which stations need to be maintained. After inspections are concluded, the team creates a list of stations that need maintenance, and then scheduling begins to conduct the maintenance work.”
Mangena explained that the ones that need urgent attention are prioritised to prevent risks and protect their network, and that it is worth noting that City Power has developed and is implementing an infrastructure plan that includes conducting proactive maintenance to avoid the collapse of the network.
“The resource challenge has, in some instances, delayed maintenance work in certain areas. This led to the backlog of certain maintenance and upgrades, and our team could not attend to all stations as per the schedule.”
He highlighted that, as an entity, they do apologise for the inconvenience caused.
“To deal with this challenge, City Power recently appointed planned maintenance managers who will focus on maintaining our infrastructure and make sure that our resources attend to maintenance work.”
He concluded by stating that their team recently conducted inspections at 20 Highland Avenue, and environmental maintenance around the substation was conducted.
“Our team removed all seasonal trees and grass that had grown around the substation.”
Bryanston resident Wendy Davidson called the newspaper to express her happiness that the substation has been maintained by the City Power team.
Related article: Bryanston resident demands action from City Power
