ELECTRICITY NETWORK STILL UNDER DIRE STRAIN

GERMISTON – Although power has been restored to KwaThema after weeks of hard work, residents are still urged to use electricity sparingly as the system is still under strain due to the fact that only one transformer is supplying the township at the moment instead of two.

KwaThema was thrown into total darkness when the Nkabinde substation which supplies the township caught fire almost a month ago. 

“The extent of the damage to the substation meant the city had to look for an alternative source of supply and this led to the rerouting of the source of power and connecting residents to the Vulcania substation, 4 km away. A cable had to be installed to make this work, which is a process which took a long time because of the trenching that was required. Also delaying the process was cable theft, protests, and a water pipe damage,” explains City spokesman Zweli Dlamini. 

Now that the power has been restored, as a long-term solution the City continues with work to refurbish the KwaThema substation.  

In the meantime, although power is fully restored the City has to implement load reduction on a four-hour interval during evening peak hours from 17:00 to 21:00 to manage the supply until the system is back to normal – hence our call to the community to use the power sparingly, concludes Dlamini.