City Power says electricity supply being restored in more areas after Robertsham fire

Clean up operations at the Robertsham substation after it caught fire plunging nearby areas into darkness. Picture: Itumeleng English/African News Agency (ANA)

Clean up operations at the Robertsham substation after it caught fire plunging nearby areas into darkness. Picture: Itumeleng English/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Oct 21, 2021

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CITY Power said yesterday, it had restored electricity to more areas in the south of Joburg after the massive fire at Robertsham.

A fire and explosion at the Robertsham substation plunged many parts of Joburg South into darkness on Monday night as firemen battled to douse the flames.

Supply of electricity was a challenge into Tuesday and the power provider apologised to affected residents.

Yesterday afternoon, spokesperson for Joburg City Power, Isaac Mangena, said they were making progress restoring power to affected areas in the Joburg South area after the fire.

“The fire razed down two main transformers and damaged other equipment plunging most of the south into darkness.

“Two transformers that survived the fire were energised earlier today after passing all the tests.

“By 1pm one feederboard was livened up to enable a gradual distribution of electricity to the residents,” Mangena said.

He said as a result, they had managed to restored power to 10 suburbs including: Robertsham, Crown Gardens, Ridgeway, Gold Reef City, Ormonde, Booysens Reserve, Ophirton, Southdale, Winchester, and Nasrec.

Mangena said they were busy testing another before restoring power to the five remaining suburbs which were still in the dark. These suburbs are Aeroton, Ormonde Industrial, Robertsham Industrial, West Turffontein and Chrisville.

“The team is currently busy testing another feederboard to ensure all the outstanding suburbs are switched back on.

“We are hoping to switch on the outstanding suburbs by late afternoon, if all goes according to plan,” he said.

He said they were also attending to electric faults which were caused by the power outage.

“As such we urge the residents from the areas that have been restored but still do not have electricity, to log a call so that technicians can be sent through to attend to it,” he said.

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