PRESS RELEASE
Thank you to our MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager from the City of Joburg and to panel of experts from City Power. The experts have enlightened the residents in Region E about our power related issues and have shed light on the pending challenges the utility faces. For all the residents who attended, thank you for braving the cold and your participation.
POWER ISSUE MEETING
HOUGHTON PRIMARY SCHOOL
HOUGHTON PRIMARY SCHOOL
A meeting has been scheduled with
MMC Nico De Jager
and
City Power
Date : 4 July 18
(WEDNESDAY)
Time : 18h30
Place : Houghton Primary School
MMC Nico De Jager
and
City Power
Date : 4 July 18
(WEDNESDAY)
Time : 18h30
Place : Houghton Primary School
City of Johannesburg Press Statement
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services,
Cllr Nico de Jager
MMC to address public on Sebenza Sub-Station Power Outages
01 July 2018 Release: Immediate
Since last year both the Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba, and I, in my capacity as the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services, have been trying to emphasise seriousness of the massive infrastructure backlog we have in the City. This backlog totalling over R170billion is the result of a systematic failure to properly budget and spend by multiple previous administrations, borrowing against tomorrow. That tomorrow is now today and we are feeling the effects of that failure.
Over the past 5 days we have been experiencing serious power problems in the North Eastern section of the City due to technical problems at the Sebenza Sub-Station, affecting tens of thousands of households. This is not the result of a single fault but due to a series of issues which have emerged at the Sub-Station and which City Power has tried to address through repairs at Sebenza. We have made use of a new agreement with Kelvin Power Station in the interim to help keep the lights on in our communities, however, while repairs are ongoing, the situation remains serious.
Tomorrow, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager, and CEO of City Power, Mr Lerato Setshedi, will address the public on power outages related to Sebenza Sub-Station and the seriousness of the infrastructure backlog faced by the City.
Details are follows:
Date: 02 July 2017
Time: 11:00 am
Venue: Lecture Theatre, A Level,
Metro Centre, Council Chamber Wing,
158 Civic Boulevard, Braamfontein.
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services,
Cllr Nico de Jager
MMC to address public on Sebenza Sub-Station Power Outages
01 July 2018 Release: Immediate
Since last year both the Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba, and I, in my capacity as the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services, have been trying to emphasise seriousness of the massive infrastructure backlog we have in the City. This backlog totalling over R170billion is the result of a systematic failure to properly budget and spend by multiple previous administrations, borrowing against tomorrow. That tomorrow is now today and we are feeling the effects of that failure.
Over the past 5 days we have been experiencing serious power problems in the North Eastern section of the City due to technical problems at the Sebenza Sub-Station, affecting tens of thousands of households. This is not the result of a single fault but due to a series of issues which have emerged at the Sub-Station and which City Power has tried to address through repairs at Sebenza. We have made use of a new agreement with Kelvin Power Station in the interim to help keep the lights on in our communities, however, while repairs are ongoing, the situation remains serious.
Tomorrow, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager, and CEO of City Power, Mr Lerato Setshedi, will address the public on power outages related to Sebenza Sub-Station and the seriousness of the infrastructure backlog faced by the City.
Details are follows:
Date: 02 July 2017
Time: 11:00 am
Venue: Lecture Theatre, A Level,
Metro Centre, Council Chamber Wing,
158 Civic Boulevard, Braamfontein.
Message from MMC Nico De Jager
29 June 2019
Let me start by apologising for the poor communication and the continuous power failures suffered by all areas to the East of the city and especially to the areas supplied from Sebenza sub-station.
As you might be aware, the backlog in infrastructure maintenance in the city is enormous, and as I have indicated on a number of occasions it will probably only get worse before it gets better. Sebenza is one of those substations that is well overdue for an upgrade and as a result we have these outages.
In the meantime City Power commissioned a new transformer at the Sebenza substation earlier this week. In doing so the substation trip and reported a fault. City Power then investigated and found that a gasket had blown that will take a further 3 or 4 days to fix. As you can imagine that is not what any of us need so we have since entered into negotiations with Kelvin Power station to increase their supply from 45MW to 150MW. This increased supply will be available around 5 pm today.
The time of availability in itself poses a problem as it is also the time of high demand that might result in another trip, power will therefore be phased in to prevent further trips.
The issue of Load-Shedding and Load-Rotation is quite simple. Load shedding is what Eskom introduce during times of high demand and low capacity and load-rotation is exactly the same but coming from City Power.
City Power started introducing load-rotation in order to be certain that all areas directly impacted upon by the lack of capacity coming from Sebenza can get some level of service. The rotational shedding might change at the discretion of City Power based on certain indicators such as the levels of water reservoirs to prevent reservoirs run empty and residents being without water as well.
City Power assured me that by early evening power to the area would be fully restored through the increased capacity in supply from the Kelvin Power station.
I hope the above can shed some light on the challenges that City Power are experiencing as a result of historical underperformance in terms of repairs and maintenance over many years.
Sincerely Yours,
Nico De Jager
Let me start by apologising for the poor communication and the continuous power failures suffered by all areas to the East of the city and especially to the areas supplied from Sebenza sub-station.
As you might be aware, the backlog in infrastructure maintenance in the city is enormous, and as I have indicated on a number of occasions it will probably only get worse before it gets better. Sebenza is one of those substations that is well overdue for an upgrade and as a result we have these outages.
In the meantime City Power commissioned a new transformer at the Sebenza substation earlier this week. In doing so the substation trip and reported a fault. City Power then investigated and found that a gasket had blown that will take a further 3 or 4 days to fix. As you can imagine that is not what any of us need so we have since entered into negotiations with Kelvin Power station to increase their supply from 45MW to 150MW. This increased supply will be available around 5 pm today.
The time of availability in itself poses a problem as it is also the time of high demand that might result in another trip, power will therefore be phased in to prevent further trips.
The issue of Load-Shedding and Load-Rotation is quite simple. Load shedding is what Eskom introduce during times of high demand and low capacity and load-rotation is exactly the same but coming from City Power.
City Power started introducing load-rotation in order to be certain that all areas directly impacted upon by the lack of capacity coming from Sebenza can get some level of service. The rotational shedding might change at the discretion of City Power based on certain indicators such as the levels of water reservoirs to prevent reservoirs run empty and residents being without water as well.
City Power assured me that by early evening power to the area would be fully restored through the increased capacity in supply from the Kelvin Power station.
I hope the above can shed some light on the challenges that City Power are experiencing as a result of historical underperformance in terms of repairs and maintenance over many years.
Sincerely Yours,
Nico De Jager
CITY POWER
29 June 2018 16h43
CITY POWER INADEQUATE COMMUNICATION
From the many Whatsup groups that I am on at present, I am picking up that that there has been inadequate communication regarding the load rotation that is currently taking place on the East side of Johannesburg.
I am picking up a lot of anger and frustration building up from residents from Alex to Kensington. Although I understand what is going on, I would like to suggest the following:
CITY POWER INADEQUATE COMMUNICATION
From the many Whatsup groups that I am on at present, I am picking up that that there has been inadequate communication regarding the load rotation that is currently taking place on the East side of Johannesburg.
I am picking up a lot of anger and frustration building up from residents from Alex to Kensington. Although I understand what is going on, I would like to suggest the following:
- A statement explaining the difference between load shedding and load rotation, and why the problems at Sebenza/Kelvin only effect the East side of Joburg, and cant be shared with other areas of Joburg or Ekurhuleni .
- An explanation of the exact nature of the problem and an estimate of how long it will take to resolve.
- A schedule for the next few days indicating the times when load shedding will take place in the different areas. This will help people understand if they are experiencing load shedding or an actual fault. Also it will show people in the suburbs and in Alex that they are all sharing the problem equally.
- Notifications seem to be only going out after load rotation has started in an area why?