M1 tunnel fire: City Power restores electricity to more residents

City Power says it has restored power to more residents affected by the M1 tunnel fire. 

The utility said on Thursday this phase of restoration was targeted at customers in Johannesburg's Parktown West area.

Teams worked day and night in the past few days to find alternative solutions to reinstate power supply to some residents while the M1 tunnel repairs continue. 

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said power to several areas in Parktown West was restored just after midnight after several interconnector cables between Fort Substation and Braamfontein Substation were laid and tests completed.

This included Empire Road, Yale Road, Service Road, Napier Street, Wabord Road, the Workman's Rehab Centre and John Orr Technical High School. 

Mangena urged residents to bear with the entity as more work was under way parallel to the M1 bridge repairs, which are expected to take longer to complete.

“We are hoping to restore more suburbs, including the rest of Braamfontein today [Thursday], if all goes according to plan,” he said. 

The vandalism and theft that occurred last week on Wednesday triggered widespread outages that affected customers in Braamfontein, Newtown, Parktown, the Johannesburg CBD and surrounding areas.

“The team has already managed to restore power to buildings such as Braampark, Liberty Life, Thuso House and Metro Centre,” said Mangena. 

“With more customers diverted to Fort substation there is a risk of overloading of that substation. Customers are encouraged to use power sparingly and unplug non-essential appliances such as geysers, pool pumps and stoves.

“Failure to do so may force us to embark on load rotation for the duration of the repairs at the M1 bridge.”

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