The City of Johannesburg’s MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Department (MMC: EISD) Cllr. Michael Sun has intervened in the repeated and serious power outages affecting several parts of the City including Northriding, north of Johannesburg.

MMC Sun required City Power to assess and give feedback to the local councillors on the interim findings and compile an action plan to resolve the constant outages which are causing not just inconveniences but loss of livelihoods and valuable production time to the residents and business stakeholders.

Focusing on Northriding, MMC Sun has been working with ward 101 Cllr. Ralf Bittkau, who has been working tirelessly, to give the political direction needed to fix the power outage issues affecting Northriding.

Our acknowledgement and understanding of the problem are as follows:
A. Equipment failure
Poor design of the network - 7km line without ring main units (RMUs)
• Old network, with no flexibilities of back-feeding
• Equipment failure exacerbated by theft and vandalism

B. Theft and vandalism
• The power line goes through vast parts that are not developed, and cable thieves can easily gain access, cut and steal cables from our network
• High demand for scrap due to mushrooming number of scrap metal dealerships
• Socio-economic reasons that lead to thievery.

C. 3rd party damages
• Failed wayleave process. Private contractors digging as they wish and often struck and damage cables.
• No repercussion to damage of property of cost of unserved energy impact to the economy and the residents.
What did we do in the past 12 months?
• In the past 12 months, City Power has been reactive and did not have enough funds to carry out capital work. Maintenance would be from section to section of the network as there was not sufficient budget to strengthen the poorly designed network. The rate of theft, vandalism, equipment failure, and lack of resources to do planned maintenance contributed immensely to this problem.

• City Power has started partnerships with local communities, community policing forums (CPFs), local security firms and community associations in general to combat theft and vandalism of the infrastructure.
As a new initiative, what we are going to implement in the immediate term and in the new financial year in July 2022:
• New cable will be laid from the Olivedale Substation to the Newmarket Switching Station, and strengthening of a dedicated supply to stabilise the outages in the area. The estimated date of completion is at the end of April 2022.
• In the next procurement processes, City Power will be seeking approval for Precision switching/substation to strengthen capacity from the Northriding substation. The estimated time to energise is before the end of the June 2021 provided that budget adjustments allow.
What are the time lines?

In the following final year, City Power plans to establish a new 45 MVA substation to cater to Northriding and Kya Sands. This is dependent on the budget approval for 2022/2023 financial year, which still has to be approved by council.

“As the City, we fully understand the inconveniences caused by power outages to our residents and remain committed to fixing this problem. We appreciate the support shown by our residents and co-operation to allow us to address the problems. Together we must put an end to these challenges and provide the City’s residents with uninterrupted services”.
MMC Sun will in due course issue focused updates of other areas to the residents, setting out the challenges and immediate plans to fix the problems.

Issued by:

CLLR. MICHAEL SUN
MMC: ENVIRONMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES DEPARTMENT
0828229340

24/02/2022