Load-shedding hits Johannesburg after city loses extra power generation

Eskom suspends loadshedding for afternoon drive time

03 February 2020 - 13:56 By timeslive
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Johannesburg has to endure load-shedding at stage 2, says City Power.
Johannesburg has to endure load-shedding at stage 2, says City Power.
Image: 123rf.com/ginasanders

City Power has lost generating capacity from Kelvin substation, which had allowed it to keep the lights on in Johannesburg despite Eskom's load-shedding elsewhere.

"Unfortunately this has forced us to embark on load-shedding at stage 2 as declared by Eskom," the entity said on Monday.

City Power said in a statement it has been receiving electricity from two lines at Kelvin power station, which contributes 10% of overall power supply, with the rest coming from Eskom.

One line was lost after it was "impacted by the damage to the 275kv Prospect/Sebenza Line" on Saturday night.

"The line never recovered and it's currently out of commission with repairs expected to be done. As such only one is currently online at Kelvin Power Station, leaving us vulnerable."

As a result, City Power had to start load-shedding from midday.

At the weekend, City Power said a fault affected one of the incoming lines at the Sebenza substation. This had resulted in several areas in east and central Johannesburg experiencing a total loss of supply. The outage affected close to 10 substations supplying electricity to several suburbs. Power to those areas were restored by Sunday.

Compounding the electricity woes on Monday, City Power had unplanned outages in various suburbs including Lindhaven, Roodepoort, Aeroton, Meredale, Langlaagte, Booysens and Robertsham.

The substation supplying Bryanston, Bromhof, Ferndale, Boksruin, Randpark Ridge, Kelland, Fontainbleau, Windsor, Robindale and surrounds also tripped, the entity said at lunchtime. Technicians were dispatched to investigate and restore supply but the estimated time of repair was not stated.

The extra capacity from Kelvin Power Station, alongside technologies such as ripple relays, and load limiting through smart meters, had allowed City Power to offset load-shedding since it started last week.

  • Eskom, meanwhile, announced that its national stage 2 rotational load-shedding will be suspended between 4pm at 6pm on Monday, to help ease traffic congestion.

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