CITY POWER RESPONDS TO ARTICLE ON DA HANDING OVER PETITION ON EXCLUSION OF EAST JOBURG SUBURBS

21 February 2024

City Power would like to respond to the article on the DA handing over a petition to the utility demanding that East Joburg Suburbs be excluded from loadshedding.

City Power has taken note of the DA's petition that was submitted to our head office on Monday, 19 February 2024.

The management of the entity received it and will carefully study the contents of the petition, and then provide feedback within a reasonable time frame.

At the core of the party's submission, is the need for the resolution of the frequent power supply disruptions affecting customers in Yeoville, Bellevue, Bertrams, Upper Houghton, Kensington, Bezuidenhout Valley, Cyrildene, Dewetshof, Observatory, Bruma and surrounding areas.

The Democratic Alliance further calls for the suspension of loadshedding in the affected Wards.

We share the DA's concern on the burdensome impact of regular outages from the Bellevue and Observatory substation.

It's for that reason that we have been continuously engaging affected customers on the entity's plans to rehabilitate the substation.

Recently, City Power issued a statement, outlining plans to permanently fix the supply disruptions at Bellevue and Observatory substations.

Before getting into the details of that plan, we would like to confirm that the two substations have been excluded from loadshedding, a decision taken few week ago to enable work to proceed uninterrupted. However due to the capacity challenges posed by the faulty cables which cause overload, we have embarked on load rotation to avoid a total blackout and further damage to the system.

We have budgeted R42m for the repairs and replacements of the network in the area.'

The following measures are being implemented as part of a permanent and sustainable solution to the current changes that we are facing. This is just a summary of our plans which we have communicated on several occasions.

At Observatory substation

- A third transformer is being commissioned to have a backup supply.

- The temporary measures taken are now being converted to permanent in phases.

At Bellevue substation

- The faulty 88kV oil cable will be repaired as a short-term solution.

- All old oil cables between Observatory and Bellevue will be replaced with XLPE cables as a longterm solution.

- A standby transformer installed to have a backup supply.

Due to the intense nature of this work which will involve a multidisciplinary approach, we expect to conclude and fully reinstate the two substations to their original state within the next 12 months.

The bulk of these outage challenges started after devastating fire gutted Observatory substation in December 2023, damaging essential infrastructure and impacting the Bellevue substation in the process.

We acknowledge the DA's effort in trying to help address the ongoing challenges, however we find it puzzling given that we have been working very closely with DA councillors in the affected areas. The information that we will be providing in our response to their petition has already been communicated to them. We have always kept councillors updated on the ongoing efforts to restore stable supply, including giving them access to our substations and network, in a bid to demonstrate the magnitude of the problems we are dealing with and to show measures that have already been put in place. It comes as no surprise to City Power that some residents have called on the DA to remove their names from the petition.

Issued by Isaac Mangena, City Power, Spokesperson, 21 February 2024