“Power supply in parts of Parktown West, Braampark, Liberty Life, Thuso House, Metro Centre and other buildings had already been reinstated, bringing the overall levels of restoration to about 80%. While this continues, replacing the burnt and stolen cables beneath the M1 bridge is unfolding alongside,” he said.
The power utility has acknowledged the work may take longer than expected, necessitating the implementation of a contingency plan using interconnectors.
Mangena said the utility is also working to restore power after two separate outages in the Lenasia area, one caused by a line trip at the Orlando switching station and the other by a minor fire near Eldorado Park. On Thursday night, a wire connecting the Orlando switching station to numerous substations, including Nancefield and Nirvana, tripped.
“All feeders that were off were restored before midnight except for the one that supplies the Nirvana and Nancefield substations. Operators have commenced with line inspection and have established that line 2 between Orlando substation and Eldorado has no fault.”
Mangena said inspection of the line between Eldorado and Nancefield are under way.
“Customers such as Coca-Cola, Trade Route Mall and Joburg Water treatment plants in Bushkoppies and Olifanstvlei have been affected by the outage. Other areas affected are Kliptown, Devland, Klipspruit West, parts of Eldorado Park including extensions 1, 3 and 5, Lenasia extensions 5, 7, 8, 11, 13.”
He said the team is also attending to an outage at the Eldorado Park substation.
“A separate team is conducting tests on the transformer to ensure it was not affected by the fire. The oil in the transformer will be tested to ascertain there was no contamination. Unfortunately, areas in Eldorado Park extensions 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and parts of 9 will remain off until repairs on the damaged structure are completed.”
TimesLIVE
Power restored to more parts of Braamfontein after the M1 tunnel fire
Image: City Power
City Power has restored electricity to more parts of Braamfontein as it continues its efforts to bring back supply using interconnectors after the M1 tunnel fire caused a widespread outage.
The destruction of the network that runs through tunnels came after the fire that resulted from vandalism last week. This caused power supply interruptions in Parktown, Newtown, Braamfontein, the Johannesburg CBD and surrounding areas.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said on Thursday Jorrisen Street in Braamfontein and nearby streets were switched back on.
“Early this morning the team managed to add Siemens, De Korte north and Juta streets to those that have been restored. The initial plan was to restore all customers, however due to the enormous load demand, particularly from Wits University, the team could only restore a few,” he said.
Mangena said City Power is using a contingency measure to try to provide temporary relief while repairs on the M1 bridge continue.
“The cables need to be handled with extra caution to avoid overloading and damaging them in the process. City Power is working on preparing two additional cables to assist in carrying the huge load from Wits and the remaining customers. Once this process is complete, all affected customers could be fully restored later tonight.
“Power supply in parts of Parktown West, Braampark, Liberty Life, Thuso House, Metro Centre and other buildings had already been reinstated, bringing the overall levels of restoration to about 80%. While this continues, replacing the burnt and stolen cables beneath the M1 bridge is unfolding alongside,” he said.
The power utility has acknowledged the work may take longer than expected, necessitating the implementation of a contingency plan using interconnectors.
Mangena said the utility is also working to restore power after two separate outages in the Lenasia area, one caused by a line trip at the Orlando switching station and the other by a minor fire near Eldorado Park. On Thursday night, a wire connecting the Orlando switching station to numerous substations, including Nancefield and Nirvana, tripped.
“All feeders that were off were restored before midnight except for the one that supplies the Nirvana and Nancefield substations. Operators have commenced with line inspection and have established that line 2 between Orlando substation and Eldorado has no fault.”
Mangena said inspection of the line between Eldorado and Nancefield are under way.
“Customers such as Coca-Cola, Trade Route Mall and Joburg Water treatment plants in Bushkoppies and Olifanstvlei have been affected by the outage. Other areas affected are Kliptown, Devland, Klipspruit West, parts of Eldorado Park including extensions 1, 3 and 5, Lenasia extensions 5, 7, 8, 11, 13.”
He said the team is also attending to an outage at the Eldorado Park substation.
“A separate team is conducting tests on the transformer to ensure it was not affected by the fire. The oil in the transformer will be tested to ascertain there was no contamination. Unfortunately, areas in Eldorado Park extensions 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and parts of 9 will remain off until repairs on the damaged structure are completed.”
TimesLIVE
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