Joburg power restored

2004-12-15 13:14

Johannesburg - Electricity was restored to suburbs in northern Johannesburg at about 11:00 after a power failure on Wednesday, electricity giant Eskom said.

Spokesperson Fani Zulu said the interruption in power supplies lasted about an hour after three generating units tripped at a power station in Mpumalanga.

"At the same time we had an interruption from power supply coming from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique. The two incidents together meant that some 2400 megawatts was no longer available on the system and this created a low frequency incident."

Zulu said the interruptions from both Cahora Bassa and the three generating units that tripped were resolved. "At about 11:00 Eskom started reconnecting those customers that lost supply."

He said only a small percentage of customers were affected. Zulu could not confirm which areas were affected, but said City Power was one of its customers which also lost supply at the time.

Earlier on Wednesday, City Power spokesman Sol Masolo said the cause of the problem was not linked to the electrical sub-station in Hursthill near the Helen Joseph hospital which caught fire last month, causing an extended power cut.

- SAPA