Cable theft‚ vandalism of its network‚ illegal connections and ageing infrastructure are the main reasons for unplanned electricity outages‚ City Power said.
The Johannesburg power utility said it was implementing numerous plans to reduce unplanned power outages.
TMG Digital recorded that there were at least 300 electricity outages across the city in four weeks monitored‚ which amounted to an average of nearly 11 outages a day. At least 174 neighbourhoods were affected‚ with the West Rand the worst hit.
City Power said it was installing condition monitoring devices that would allow it to detect network faults and defects on its equipment before it fails and results in outages.
City Power spokeswoman Yumna Sheik said City Power was also working to enhance the security of its infrastructure and make it less attractive to criminals. The company is in the process of replacing copper conductor cables with aluminium conductor cables to prevent criminals from digging up the cables to sell them to scrap metal dealers.
“Aluminium conductor cables perform a similar functionality with the copper cable conductors‚ but they have no commercial value‚” she said.
“The use of arial bundle conductors has been successful in reducing theft and vandalism. In instances where the usage of aluminium conductor cables is not feasible‚ City Power is encasing the copper cables in concrete to prevent tampering and theft.”
Sheik added that the company is encouraged by the ratification of the Criminal Matters Amendment Bill 2015. The ratification of the bill will give the prosecuting authorities the ability and authority to impose more stringent sentences on those convicted of cable theft.
She said that the company was confident that imposing the maximum sentences will serve as deterrence to those who selfishly regard electricity infrastructure as an easy source of revenue.
Sheik said City Power was also working closely with subcontractors doing fibre installation to minimise the potential of damage to electricity cables and speed up repairs if damage takes place.
She said that City Power has made substantial capital investment to beef up its generating capacity in the past year. The power utility has an annual budget of R2-billion.
“City Power is finalising the construction of the Sebenza substation that is located next to the Kelvin power station. The substation will strengthen the north-eastern networks and relieve the Prospect substation‚ which currently supplies most of the load from Kelvin 88kV busbar‚” Sheik said.
“This network upgrade consists of a number of different projects that completes a major network strengthening in three major substations. This upgrade will help stabilise the Orlando substation node.”
* The data used for this article was collected by monitoring the City Power Twitter account‚ @CityPowerJhb‚ from March 19 to April 15. The outage was only recorded when it was noted where the outage took place.
– TMG Digital
City Power has plans to cut unplanned outages
Cable theft‚ vandalism of its network‚ illegal connections and ageing infrastructure are the main reasons for unplanned electricity outages‚ City Power said.
The Johannesburg power utility said it was implementing numerous plans to reduce unplanned power outages.
TMG Digital recorded that there were at least 300 electricity outages across the city in four weeks monitored‚ which amounted to an average of nearly 11 outages a day. At least 174 neighbourhoods were affected‚ with the West Rand the worst hit.
City Power said it was installing condition monitoring devices that would allow it to detect network faults and defects on its equipment before it fails and results in outages.
City Power spokeswoman Yumna Sheik said City Power was also working to enhance the security of its infrastructure and make it less attractive to criminals. The company is in the process of replacing copper conductor cables with aluminium conductor cables to prevent criminals from digging up the cables to sell them to scrap metal dealers.
“Aluminium conductor cables perform a similar functionality with the copper cable conductors‚ but they have no commercial value‚” she said.
“The use of arial bundle conductors has been successful in reducing theft and vandalism. In instances where the usage of aluminium conductor cables is not feasible‚ City Power is encasing the copper cables in concrete to prevent tampering and theft.”
Sheik added that the company is encouraged by the ratification of the Criminal Matters Amendment Bill 2015. The ratification of the bill will give the prosecuting authorities the ability and authority to impose more stringent sentences on those convicted of cable theft.
She said that the company was confident that imposing the maximum sentences will serve as deterrence to those who selfishly regard electricity infrastructure as an easy source of revenue.
Sheik said City Power was also working closely with subcontractors doing fibre installation to minimise the potential of damage to electricity cables and speed up repairs if damage takes place.
She said that City Power has made substantial capital investment to beef up its generating capacity in the past year. The power utility has an annual budget of R2-billion.
“City Power is finalising the construction of the Sebenza substation that is located next to the Kelvin power station. The substation will strengthen the north-eastern networks and relieve the Prospect substation‚ which currently supplies most of the load from Kelvin 88kV busbar‚” Sheik said.
“This network upgrade consists of a number of different projects that completes a major network strengthening in three major substations. This upgrade will help stabilise the Orlando substation node.”
* The data used for this article was collected by monitoring the City Power Twitter account‚ @CityPowerJhb‚ from March 19 to April 15. The outage was only recorded when it was noted where the outage took place.
– TMG Digital
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