Power has been restored in most parts of Durban following widespread outages.
The city of eThekwini was plunged into darkness on Tuesday night after an explosion at the 275kv Klaarwater major substation
The substation is a key supply point to Durban from Eskom.
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The explosion affected electricity supply to areas in the Northern, Western and Southern regions of the city.
eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said technicians are working around the clock to ensure that all areas are fully restored.
Power restoration
“The power has been restored in most areas that have been affected following the explosion at Klaarwater substation with the exception of the area of Shallcross. As a result, our teams are still on site trying to ensure that all areas have got power.”
The eThekwini Municipality has apologised to residents for the outage and inconveniences caused.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
Load shedding
Meanwhile, ailing parastatal Eskom is expected to provide an update on the national grid after it implemented load shedding on Sunday.
The parastatal initially suspended the deliberate power cuts, but it was no surprise when it was reinstated 24 hours later.
Eskom said stage 2 load shedding would be implemented from 4 pm to midnight from Monday to Wednesday,
“Eskom will endeavour to limit load shedding to night-time to have minimal impact on the economy and population,” it said
The power utility said it would provide a further update on Wednesday afternoon “or as soon as any significant changes occur”.
It said the power cuts were still needed to replenish emergency generation reserves.
“Since Saturday, two generation units at Kriel and a unit each at Kendal, Komati, Lethabo, Majuba and Matla power stations have returned to service. A generating unit each at Kendal and Kusile power stations was taken offline for repairs,” Eskom said.
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