City Power attributes Ward 81 outages to cable damage and infrastructure failure
City Power says many of the outages are due to ongoing road construction projects that have repeatedly damaged underground feeder cables.
City Power has acknowledged that repeated power outages affecting parts of Ward 81 are largely the result of underground cable faults and infrastructure failure, compounded by heavy rainfall and damage caused by road construction.
Responding to questions and a published story on January 16 from this publication, the utility confirmed that faults on feeder cables linked to the Westfield substation, as well as damage occurring along the circuits, have been responsible for disruptions impacting clinics, a police station and retirement facilities in the area.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the outages were not linked to a transfer from the Gresswold substation, disputing claims that facilities were removed from that supply point.
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“The facilities were never connected to or removed from the Gresswold substation. They were removed from the Edenvale town supply, which falls under the Ekurhuleni municipality, to allow City Power full control of the network and easier access for maintenance.”
Mangena also attributed many of the outages to ongoing road construction projects that have repeatedly damaged underground feeder cables.
“Most of the faults were caused by infrastructure failure, specifically underground cable faults and damaged cables. In several instances, road construction activities damaged both feeder cables at the same time, which resulted in prolonged outages.”
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According to Mangena, a risk assessment was conducted before the network reconfiguration, including consideration of the number of critical and vulnerable institutions supplied by the network.
To mitigate the impact on essential services, Mangena said, “Both feeder cables [from the Westfield substation] were replaced with new cables in December 2025, and all are currently in service.”
Under normal operating conditions, City Power relies on a dual-feeder system, where one cable can backfeed the other during a fault. However, this system fails when both cables are damaged simultaneously.
Mangena added that while City Power did not have a separate backup supply link planned, the existing configuration was designed to provide redundancy through paired feeder cables.
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