By Luvhimbi Mulalo
City Power has restored 45% of the power supply affected by a fire at its Central Substation, with the utility confirming that work to repair the remaining damaged infrastructure is continuing.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the 45% restoration was achieved by 7pm on Wednesday.
Power supply has been restored to the Carlton Centre and Standard Bank, while supply to Selby has been restored through an alternative route.
Mangena said the progress followed continued work by technical teams to repair damaged cables, conduct testing and safely return affected sections of the network to service.
“The critical cables supplying Carlton Centre and Standard Bank have been successfully tested, cleared and returned to service. Repairs are also continuing on the Fox Street West cable,” he said.
Technical teams are also rerouting some cables to alternative supply points.
“This includes the Marshall Street West and Anderson West connections, which are being rerouted to other available supply points to support the restoration of additional customers while repairs to the remaining damaged infrastructure continue,” Mangena said.
City Power teams are also installing additional support structures in underground tunnels to allow technical teams to safely access the infrastructure and continue restoration work.
Further testing and cleaning of electrical equipment at the Central Substation is also under way.
“Equipment that has already been tested has performed satisfactorily, while further work is under way to clean and secure electrical connections before final testing is completed,” Mangena said.
Work is continuing on the remaining faults, with teams working to locate affected sections so that repairs can be carried out.
“Technical teams will continue with repairs, testing and rerouting of the remaining affected cables. Further restoration will take place as each set of repairs is completed and the relevant infrastructure is confirmed safe to return to service,” Mangena said.
City Power Acting Chief Executive Officer Charles Tlouane attributed the progress to the close coordination of the restoration response and network configuration work undertaken during the previous fire incident.
He said the work had enabled some plants that were previously out of service to be brought back into operation.
“We are encouraged by the progress made so far, particularly that we have restored 45% of the affected supply by last night, earlier than the anticipated seven-day period,” Tlouane said.
“This progress reflects the coordinated efforts of our teams, who have been working around the clock, as well as the network configuration work undertaken during the previous fire incident. That work enabled some plants that were previously out of service to be brought back into operation and has contributed to the progress we are seeing now.”
Customers experiencing isolated outages after supply has been restored to their area are urged to log a fault through citypower.mobi or call 011 490 7484 or 080 020 2925.
Suspicious activity involving electricity infrastructure can be reported to City Power Security Risk Management on 011 490 7900 or 011 490 7911, or via WhatsApp on 083 579 4497.
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