In a recent media statement by the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, councillor Nico de Jager, he stated that, despite the disastrous effects of load-shedding on City Power infrastructure, the City of Johannesburg’s power utility is working hard to ensure minimal impact on residents. According to De Jager, as one of the biggest utilities depending on power supply from Eskom, City Power is being severely affected by unprecedented load-shedding. The reality is that both financial and operational damage is being done, and this will be felt even after load-shedding stops.
“City Power’s operational staff are overstretched and always on standby to deal with the restoration of power and after-effects of load shedding, as seen during this week. Rebooting the power grids is to the detriment of already aged infrastructure and will lead to a failure risk of said infrastructure. The reality is that we have inherited infrastructure that was not regularly maintained, with the backlog standing at R170 billion. This means that whenever it rains, and restorations occur after load-shedding, the power system gets weakened and the depots are inundated with power outage reports,” he said.
Adding to this, whenever there is load-shedding, the aged network also takes extreme strain due to the massive load-shifting and -insuring happening when Eskom cuts or restores the power.
On 19 March, certain parts of Johannesburg North experienced extended power outages as local substations tripped and took some time to restore.
De Jager also mentioned that Eskom cannot provide answers as to how long load-shedding is going to last, probably due to poor planning. Any utility is required to constantly plan ahead and put contingency measures in place to ensure that current and future loads buoyed by economic growth are catered for.
The City is working hard to ensure that resources are ready and available to address any challenges caused by load-shedding. Budgets have been allocated to ensure the maintenance backlog is addressed and bulk infrastructure is refurbished or replaced.
“We have invested heavily to ensure that the problems of regular outages and unnecessary trips are avoided or eliminated totally. On behalf of the DA-led multi-party coalition government, I wish to apologise for the inconvenience caused to residents and ensure them that we are determined to continue delivering quality services to all,” De Jager concluded.
