Africa-Press – South-Africa. A fire which broke out at the Mahikeng substation in the North West has left several areas without power for more than seven days.
Eskom customer relations Manager Ezekiel Baruti said the medium voltage control room where the fire broke out is badly burnt.
“This is where all cables from the high voltage side connect to supply various suburbs and villages. At this point of initial assessment, Eskom cannot rule out human tampering, but thorough investigations will follow,” Baruti said.
Eskom said it is still being determined how much the damage would cost the power utility.
“An investigation is underway to determine the extent of the cost to the fire explosion,” Baruti said.
He said in the meantime, Eskom could back-feed the villages adjoining in Mahikeng.
“This means we are feeding the villages from alternative sources,” Baruti said.
According to Eskom, they were not able to back feed:
“We have been able to source the mobile switchgear, which was meant to do the same job as the structure destroyed by the fire. Our multidisciplinary team is working long hours to connect the mobile switch gear to the grid,” Baruti added. He said Eskom is trying to create temporary measures to supply customers while police and Eskom are busy with investigations.
Eskom was able to back feed the following villages:
The line to the Leopard Park substation is not affected by the fire, so Leopard Park, the Crossing and some neighbouring areas will have electricity.
“The initial assessment was that it would take days to fully restore power to all affected areas. We were hoping that restore supply by Saturday to the affected areas. We are still optimistic that we will restore electricity supply in the next 24hrs,” Baruti said.
He said should they fail to restore the power; the affected communities would be alerted.
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