Johannesburg City Power is addressing the power crisis through various intervention programmes including the launch of the new Sebenza substation in Kempton Park on 7 February.

The four-year project which was also the biggest of its kind imple4mented by the City recently reached fruition in record time and without injuries during the construction phase. There was also a saving of R50 million from the original budget.

The City had initially budgeted R1.2 billion for the new state-of -the-art substation to feed areas including Modderfontein, Gresswold, Sandringham, Alexandra, Athol Oaklands, Rosebank, Melrose and Parkhurst. It was built to mitigate against power outages arising from electricity demand exceeding supply across the city.

Project coordinator in the City’s Engineering Services Tefo Khama said the substation had been installed with cutting edge technology and would relieve the load of the two power stations that also supply the areas. He said the substation had three transformers and a fourth is anticipated to be installed in the near future to meet the power needs envisaged including that of the Modderfontein development which is in the pipeline. Furthermore, insulated cables had been used to prevent power outages in case of fire or other emergencies.

“The reason we had saved the R50 million was because we had initially identified suppliers from abroad for cables. However, when the project commenced there was a local supplier available which saved City Power a lot of money,” said Khama.

City of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba said the Sebenza substation was a significant milestone in the multi-party government’s efforts to provide services that would improve residents’ quality of life through a reliable power supply.

“This also goes a long way in bolstering economic activity throughout the city.” Particularly with Johannesburg being a strategic driver for Gauteng and South Africa’s growth for jobs and ease of doing business,” said Mashaba.

He added that in many areas, infrastructure had been built decades ago for communities that have now grown substantially in size. A total of 27 per cent of the City’s bulk transformers have been running past their useful lifespan, producing a staggering 177 000 low voltage outages in 2017/18. The upgrade is also part of City Power’s efforts to electrify informal settlements across the city.

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