Africa-Press – South-Africa. Johannesburg City Power said on Monday that faulty cables and the blowing up of two transformers hampered the final stages of repairs to the underground tunnel in the Johannesburg CBD.
The lengthy outage was caused by a fire in an underground tunnel last week.
Despite repairs being completed as planned, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said it was found that one of the 6.6kV cables from Central to Selby was faulty.
“The cable has been disconnected and the fault located. Excavations will resume as soon as the rain stops this morning [Monday].
“All connections with respect to feeders and the new transformer had been completed. Final connections and system testing had also been done.
“However, upon switching on the system, two transformer cables blew up… and the transformer breaker flashed over,” Mangena said.
By noon on Monday, Mangena said the power utility had energised the transformers and started restoring areas that were affected by the underground tunnel fires.
Power outages in Roodepoort after transformers gutted by fire
“The switch on will happen gradually between the areas fed from Selby and central substations to avoid overloading the circuit.”
Areas that have been switched on include Village Deep, Heidelberg Road, Wemmer Central, WNLA Hospital, New Centre, and Selby.
The outstanding areas are Village Main, and Wemmer South feeding from Selby Substation, Mangena said.
“The two distributors developed the faults while the power was off. Work to finalise repairs in the tunnel and between the two substations was disrupted by rain over the weekend delaying our plans to restore power on Sunday.
“The team is still on site doing everything in their power to ensure that power [is] restored today [Monday] albeit the unfavourable rainy weather conditions,” he said.
Never miss a story. Choose from our range of newsletters to get the news you want delivered straight to your inbox.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
