Tshwane mayor announces plan to combat prolonged power outages

Tshwane residents affected by recent power outages can expect relief as Mayor Nasiphi Moya announces comprehensive measures to address infrastructure challenges and minimise blackouts across the municipality.

Moya unveiled strategic interventions to combat outages caused by storm damage, vandalism, and infrastructure failures following widespread power disruptions.

Many residents this week expressed disappointment at the prolonged power outages after they were left without electricity due to a severe storm.

Moya said the City will implement the interventions to ensure that power failures are mitigated or eliminated by prioritising high-impact network abnormalities to stabilise the electricity supply.

The City will also accelerate the tree-pruning programme to minimise related outages.

The storm-related damages affecting overhead infrastructure and tree branches interfering with overhead lines were also identified among causes of the recent power interruptions.

Other causes were the 11 kV equipment failure within the Pretoria CBD precinct, 132 kV equipment failure (exploded current transformer) at Kwagga infeed substation, 132 kV equipment failure at K3 Primary substation in Soshanguve due to flying objects from the settlement adjacent to the substation.

Moya said: “Corrugated iron sheets were uprooted from the settlement and flew into the substation, damaging the high voltage lines and associated accessories.”

Illegal connections, mainly affecting Pretoria West areas, were among the causes of power outages.

The City, Moya said, planned to deploy centralised teams on an ad hoc basis to regions with more outages to minimise turnaround times.

She said the City will secure a security tender to minimise incidents of theft and vandalism, especially in enclosures including substations.

“Other areas of focus for the long term will be to ensure that we are able to source and increase the maintenance budget for our electricity infrastructure. We want to assure residents that the recent power outages are taken seriously by the City,” she said.

This week the City reported that its technicians were overstretched due to the size of the network that they cover to attend to power outages caused by a severe storm, resulting in a massive restoration backlog.

Among the affected areas were Pretoria North, Wolmer, Wonderboom, Pyramid, Waltloo, Koedoespoort, Rooiwal and Soshanguve.

Moya said: “Over the past few weeks, residents in different parts of Tshwane have experienced prolonged electricity outages. During the weekend, a storm gutted various parts of Tshwane, leaving many residents without electricity.”

In previous weeks, she said, the City’s Energy and Electricity Department has responded to damages suffered by substations such as Pyramid and Kwagga.

“We acknowledge the grave inconvenience that these power outages have caused to residents,” she said.

Pretoria News

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za