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Power cuts cause blast in PE
18/04/2008 20:07 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Power surges caused by electricity cuts resulted in an explosion at a Port Elizabeth substation on Friday, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality said.
The municipality said oil-based circuit breakers at the substation exploded on Friday afternoon, causing damage estimated at millions of rands.
It was believed that the circuit breakers were not designed to be switched on and off at regular intervals as had been done because of the planned power cuts.
"A municipal employee, who was at the substation, was lucky to escape serious injury as he had just left the substation when the explosion happened," the municipality said.
Walmer and surrounding areas were without power, and electricity may only be restored on Saturday.
"... while staff will be working around the clock to restore power to the affected areas as soon as possible, some areas, including the Walmer Park shopping centre may be without electricity until some time tomorrow (Saturday)."
It was hoped that certain affected areas could be linked up with other supply cables nearby, but this was not possible to do for all the affected areas.
"This means that the remaining areas will be left without electricity, most probably until some time tomorrow."
Power cuts scheduled for the rest of Friday and Saturday had been cancelled as a result of the explosion.
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