A number of areas in Industria, Johannesburg are currently without power after a substation fire broke out during load shedding.
City Power said emergency services have managed to get the fire under control, but that they cannot begin with assessments or mop-up operations until fumes and smoke from the tunnels clear.
The fire began at the Industria substation’s feeder boards.
The utility estimates it will take up to five hours before work can be handed over to them to attempt power restoration.
Affected areas include Riverlea, Langlaagte, Industria, Bosmont, Newclare, Maraisburg, and surrounding areas.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
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Stage 6 load shedding
Early on Sunday morning, South Africans awoke to news of more prolonged bouts of darkness, after Eskom pushed load shedding to stage 6.
This, CEO André de Ruyter said, was to avoid a total system collapse, after generation units at Kusile and Kriel power stations tripped.
“If we do not implement load shedding, what is likely to happen we will then see the frequency deteriorate to the point where we are unable to operate the grid in a stable fashion, and once that happens then of course you have what is known as a total blackout,” De Ruyter said.
He refuted claims that sabotage was behind current load shedding, and said maintenance teams were working hard to restore units as soon as possible.
ALSO READ: Eskom implements stage 6 load shedding
‘Unsustainable’
City of Johannesburg Department of Environment and Infrastructure Services (EISD) MMC Michael Sun said on Saturday that rolling blackouts were making the city’s ability to provide sustainable energy supply to residents “virtually impossible”.
Pressure was also being placed on City Power infrastructure, making the network susceptible to faults.
Cable theft was also a concern during powerless hours.
City Power engineering services group executive Isaac Rampedi assured that technicians would be working overtime this weekend to restore power after load shedding, and to deal with outages owed to cable theft and an overloaded network.
“Load shedding makes our job more difficult, but we won’t submit in the face of these lengthy blackouts,” Rampedi said.
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Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by Faizel Patel.
