Durban — Although many are still affected, Eskom in KwaZulu-Natal is making progress in restoring power to storm-affected customers.
In a statement on Tuesday, Eskom in KZN said it is making steady progress in restoring supply to customers between Mgababa and Port Edward and customers in the Mtubatuba and Empangeni areas.
Eskom in KZN stated that destructive storms left widespread damage to electrical infrastructure over the weekend, resulting in customers being without electricity supply from numerous lines. Due to the extent of the damage, work is still ongoing.
Maintenance and operations senior manager Nozipho Mpanza said: “Our technicians are on the ground and are attending to faults with the utmost urgency, but due to the nature of these incidents, supply restoration might be delayed.”
Mpanza urged customers to remain safe by staying clear of all damaged or fallen electrical infrastructure. It is crucial that everyone stays away from fallen trees or broken branches near a power line and does not attempt to remove it before the line has been isolated and made safe by authorised Eskom personnel.
Additionally, do not swim in rivers or streams as power lines may have fallen into them and electrified the water.
Mpanza reminded customers to report faults or damaged infrastructure following Eskom’s various customer service channels, which include the MyEskom Customer App, Alfred the Chatbot, USSD platform (*120*37566#) and the Eskom Contact Centre (08600 ESKOM/ 37566).
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Msunduzi Municipality gave an update on major power outages in the municipality.
Msunduzi said their teams were working around the clock to restore electricity to all impacted areas and address these challenges as swiftly as possible.
The municipality said that on Sunday morning, a severe windstorm devastated large parts of Pietermaritzburg, uprooting trees that fell onto power lines and causing extensive outages. This storm resulted in interruptions to both 33kV lines supplying Hilton, forcing their teams to prioritise fault-finding and restoring supply to Hilton and surrounding areas before completing the cable repairs between Crossways Primary Substation and Cedara Primula Substation.
The windstorm, which began at 6.30am caused widespread outages in the following areas:
- Hilton, Sweetwaters, part of Victoria Country Club, Worlds View, Garlington, and surrounding areas.
- Mount Homes, Hillside, Daisy Dale, St. Michael’s, Dennis Sheptone Berryhill, Cowan House, Woodsmoke, Valley Road, Wicken Way, and Cuckoo Lane.
- Parts of the upper CBD, Wembley, Prestbury, Mpumuza, Signal Hill, Mayor's Walk, Blackridge, Clarendon, Boughton, and surrounding areas.
- Copesville, Swapo, Haniville, Mason, Pakkies, Mercedes, and surrounding areas.
- Springvale, Howrah, South, Regina, Union, Steeple, Aurora, Comet, Salvia, Nkululeko, and surrounding areas.
- Zwartkop
The municipality said that given the significant scale of damage and the vast network affected, additional resources were deployed to assist in restoring power.
It said that many areas affected by the windstorm have also had power restored. However, some parts remain partially without supply, including Flamingo Drive, Forest Lane, Penny Lane, Tino Road, Azalea Drive, and surrounding areas.
The municipality anticipated full restoration of those areas by the end of the day on Monday.
It said it is also addressing isolated reports of power interruptions exceeding 24 hours and is attending to these within the limits of available resources.
“The inconvenience resulting from the windstorm is highly regretted, however by the nature of its design, electricity flow and electricity networks are susceptible to environmental conditions in particular, windstorms, storms and rain. The impact of these in most cases is unavoidable,” the municipality said.
“Additionally, where transformers have failed due to overloading caused by bridged meters and illegal connections, replacements will only occur following the proper processes to remove illegal connections and normalise bridged meters.”
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News