Large parts of Cape Town without power after overhead line fails

12 March 2022 - 16:53 By TimesLIVE
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The failure of a high-voltage line in Cape Town caused a power cut affecting large parts of the city on March 12 2022. File photo
The failure of a high-voltage line in Cape Town caused a power cut affecting large parts of the city on March 12 2022. File photo
Image: Mark Wessels

Large areas of Cape Town suffered a power cut on Saturday, and the city council said it was due to a fault on an Eskom overhead line.

Cape Town's areas 7, 2 and 15 lost their electricity supply on March 12 2022 due to an Eskom overhead line fault.
Cape Town's areas 7, 2 and 15 lost their electricity supply on March 12 2022 due to an Eskom overhead line fault.
Image: City of Cape Town

The city centre, Atlantic seaboard, Observatory, Paarden Eiland and the west coast to Milnerton were without power from around 3.40pm. 

City councillor Ian McMahon said the problem was with “Eskom infeeds at Montague Gardens”, adding that high voltage technicians were on site.

A City of Cape Town tweet at 4.30pm said: “The city is aware of a power outage affecting areas 7, 2 and 15 due to an Eskom overhead line fault. City teams are working with urgency with Eskom.”

Similar areas were affected by a catastrophic loss of power in December 2021, when a fire destroyed 132kV high-voltage cables from the city's Montague Gardens switching station to the Foreshore switching station, and from Eskom’s Tafelbaai high-voltage substation to the Foreshore Switching Station.

In that instance, the electricity supply was restored the following day.

TimesLIVE


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