JOHANNESBURG - City Power is dealing with more than 6,000 outstanding outage reports on Wednesday as the electricity grid continues to come under pressure.
The utility says adverse weather conditions are delaying its response times, while low temperatures have driven up electricity demand.
Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson, said demand had spiked beyond what the utility had anticipated, putting additional pressure on the grid.
“We are seeing demand spiking beyond what we anticipated. This is really putting pressure on our systems, especially in the Hurst Hill area, following the outage that happened at the Delta substation on Monday night. That shot up the numbers, with customers demanding answers,” Mangena said.
He said teams had been working overnight to restore electricity to affected areas.
“We have all hands-on deck, including internal technicians, operators and contractors, so we can be able to respond timeously.”
According to Mangena, City Power’s problems have been exacerbated by ageing infrastructure, the impact of load-shedding on municipal infrastructure and delays affecting its contractors.
“The issue around non-payment of contractors has also taken a toll.
"We cannot respond as fast as we should because of some of those outstanding payments to our contractors. Our material stock reserves are also depleting faster than we can replenish them. We are hoping that by tomorrow, we should be able to move the needle so we can restore power to those affected,” he said.
Mangena conceded that the utility was facing a delivery crisis.
“The teams have held their own since the demand started. We are also putting more teams on the ground, and we’ll concentrate on those areas that have the highest number of outages,” he added.