Work underway to replace panels at Mooikloof substation

A blaze raged through the substation on Wednesday evening leaving parts of Pretoria East in the dark.

The affected areas include Morelata Park, Pretorius Park, Mooikloof, Olympus, Woodlands and parts of Garsfontein.

City of Tshwane spokesperson Hilgard Mathews says preliminary assessments indicate that approximately 26 panels have been burnt out.

“Our teams have already indicated they will be able to source new panels to replace those that are burnt out. The work will start in earnest in order to ensure that the site is cleared as quickly as possible so that the new panels can be installed.

“Our teams will also be continuously working to get the substation operational again. However, the work required is going to be extensive,” says Mathews.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

“We are still conducting investigations into the cause of the fire. What we know is that while our teams were responding to outages in the area one of our system operators accessed the substation and upon going inside, he was blown out by an explosion

“He was injured and taken to hospital and is recovering.”

Mathews says the repairs are expected to take more than a week to complete.

“The city is deploying all available resources to ensure that the substation is operational again. Repairing the substation is going to take time, we cannot compromise on this.”

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