No end in sight to Joburg CBD power outage
City Power has warned that some residents in the Johannesburg CBD might be in the dark for the next five days as technicians battle to restore power.
The lights in the CBD went out on Monday after a fire broke out in an underground tunnel.
Areas affected by the outage include Selby, parts of Booysens and Westgate.
Several streets, including Ntemi Piliso, Anderson, Harrison, Main, Commissioner, Pritchard, Market, Fredericks, Grahamstown, Fox and, Anderson West have also been impacted.
Spokesperson Isaac Mangena says while teams managed to enter the underground tunnels from Tuesday, no work could be done due to the heat.
“The fire, which was put out almost 24 hours later, damaged most of the infrastructure inside the tunnels, especially the cables moving from Fordsburg, Johnware substation and Central Substation. Our teams conducted preliminary assessments to the damage, and material has been ordered to ensure we start with the work on Wednesday morning.
“We managed to backfeed most of the areas that were affected by the fire, with at least 90% of them restored by Tuesday afternoon.”
He says affected areas will remain without power until repairs on the damaged infrastructure are completed.
“Estimated time of restoration can only be given once the teams have details about the extent of the repairs needed. The prolonged outage may take about five days. Investigation into the cause of the fire is also still ongoing, but we do not rule out anything at this stage.”
ALSO READ
