WRAP | Cape Town outages: Temporary cables used to restore power, repairs to take 5 to 6 weeks

The City of Cape Towns mayoral committee member for energy and climate change Beverley van Reenen says the supply of electricity has been restored through lines that had been out for maintenance are being used to restore the power and they are using lines feeding other areas.

Repairs to the damaged cables will take up to five weeks.

"Supply to the affected areas was returned load permitting. It is anticipated that all load should be restored by this evening," she said.

- Marvin Charles 

The City of Cape Town has confirmed power has been restored to all areas.

Mayor Geordin Hill Lewis has described it as a "great relief."

"I am very grateful to the City’s engineering and technical teams who have worked nearly 24 hours under extreme pressure to get this done. And ‘thank you’ to residents for your patience," he said

- Marvin Charles

Update: Power restored to all areas! Great relief.

I am very grateful to the @CityofCT engineering and technical teams who have worked nearly 24 hours under extreme pressure to get this done. And ‘thank you’ to residents for your patience.

— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) December 21, 2021

 

Power has been restored to the Foreshore and City of Cape Town. Teams are reporting that electricity supply to Mouille Point, Green Point, Sea Point and Waterfront is imminent.

-Marvin Charles

NB update: Power supply restored to foreshore, Roggebaai and City main. Teams report that supply is imminent in Mouille Point, Green Point, Sea Point, Waterfront, remainder of City Bowl. The end is in sight now! Thanks for the patience.

— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) December 21, 2021

I'm pleased that power has been restored in parts of the affected area. @CityofCT teams continue to work to resolve the power outage and I thank them for that. The areas not yet online will be connected as soon as possible. https://t.co/8Sm0sEt47v

— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) December 21, 2021

 

City of Cape Town officials are scrambling to resolve the massive power outage which has seen several areas in the CBD plunged into darkness since Monday night.

Now fears are growing that the damage to a high voltage cable could be more serious than initially anticipated and could take much longer to fix.

The City's mayoral committee member for energy and climate change, Beverley Van Reenen, said the cause of the outage had been identified as major cable damage to City and Eskom feeders in conjunction with the loss of a conductor on the Eskom overhead line.

I would like to thank the teams that have worked and continue to work tirelessly to get our electricity back online. Parts of Area 7 including Woodstock and Gardens are back online. Thank you to the residents for their patience as we continue to work to resolve this issue. pic.twitter.com/RDwZIi3tKQ

— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) December 21, 2021

 

The City of Cape Town has assured residents that there are no threats to the City's water supply.

This comes after the mass power outage that affected several areas in Cape Town CBD, and growing fears that the outages could affect water reserves.

Mayoral committee member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien told News24: "We monitored the situation through the course of the day. Thankfully with the return of electricity to areas where the reservoirs are located, the freshwater system is stable, and there is no risk to the water supply."

- Marvin Charles

The Western Cape Health Department has confirmed that three hospitals in the CBD were running on emergency power through the mass power outages.

Health communication head in the Western Cape, Marika Champion told News24 one of those hospitals have been brought back online.

“This is as per the contingency planning that we have in place, so emergency power kicks in the health department is monitoring this situation,” she said.

Champion added that both the City and Eskom see health care as a priority.

- Marvin Charles

The City of Cape Town has confirmed that some areas in the CBD have had their power restored.

According to Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis areas such as District Six, Vredehoek, Gardens, Constitution street parts of the east city CBD and Foreshore power has been restored.

“There are still parts of the Atlantic Sea Board teams are working nonstop to get that up as soon as possible,” he said.

Mayoral Committee member for Energy and Climate Change Beverley van Reenen confirmed that teams have managed to restore power to some parts of the City. 

“Our electrical supply teams are working tirelessly to ensure that we restore power to all affected areas.

As of 10:30 am, today, 21 December 2021, the following areas have power restored: 

• Constitution Street covering the Zonnebloem and District Six area. 

• Some portions of the CBD, including the upper and eastern parts. 

• Tamboerskloof and gardens area.

• Vredehoek and upwards to Table Mountain. 

"I urge residents to save as much power as possible to reduce pressure on our current supply by switching off non-essential appliances, including geysers and turn them back on once power has been restored fully,” she said.

- Marvin Charles

Eskom has estimated that power will be returned to affected suburbs by 15:00 on Tuesday. In a statement, Eskom said operators are repairing an overhead line fault on the Acacia-Tafelbaai line. "Operators were dispatched on Monday night to do an assessment of the damage to the overhead line. However, upon inspection, additional faults were discovered which required further repairs. Eskom has been working tirelessly with the City of Cape Town to restore electricity supply," the statement said.

- Nicole McCain

Several City of Cape Town services have been affected by the power outage. These include the City’s call centre, where its 24-hour customer-related phone channels are currently down. Motor vehicle registration, traffic and drivers licencing and testing contact centre services are not available; limited services are available for those seeking general or accounts information; and the accounts payable queue is out of service. Residents have been advised to log faults online or via SMS.

– Nicole McCain

Update from ward councillor Nicola Jowell:

A bit more technical information to summarize the situation: 2 of the 132kV feeders out of Montague Gardens SS linking Woodstock and Foreshore SS have failed (cause and nature not yet established) and the 2nd feeder to Woodstock is being tested currently to determine if serviceable. If okay, we will energise Woodstock with this 1 cable and decouple Foreshore as the load will be too high. Eskom attempted to re-energise Tafelbaai but the line tripped due to a shield wire to ground setting the belt at Monti alight (extinguished now), they are removing the shield wire and will then re-energise. Once Tafelbaai is back we will then close the tie feed we have to Foreshore and run Foreshore as a spur on this 132kV feeder.  Will have to also use the Gas turbines at Roggebaai to supplement during peak else will need to load shed. We are continuing with cable fault location on the faulted feeders and once details are known, will we be able to determine time to repair same. We have our specialist cable contractors on standby to assist also.

The City of Cape Town is in the process of rerouting the power supply to the Woodstock area.According to a statement by the City, teams are in process of and the reinstallation of damaged cables.

“As an interim measure to ensure businesses are not severely affected in Area 7, due consideration is also being made to switch on the Roggebaai turbines to supply power to the CBD area,” the statement said.

“The City is also working with Eskom to assist with re-energising the Atlantic Seaboard and CBD area as the damage has also affected Eskom’s infrastructure.”

Teams have been working through the night to restore power to Area 7, after feeder lines from the City’s Acacia High Voltage Substation to Montagu Gardens and Eskom’s Tafelbaai High Voltage Substation were lost on Monday night.

A fire affecting the infrastructure exacerbated the situation.The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Assessments are still under way to determine the full extent of the damage, said Mayco Member for Energy Beverley van Reenen.

Metrorail operations have been suspended due to the power outage, confirmed Metrorail spokesperson Nana Zenani. "Everyone who uses high voltage [power] has been affected. We can’t run," she said. Commuters have been informed of the disruption to services, she added.

- Nicole McCain

One feeder cable has been restored and is currently being tested, according to Sea Point ward councillor Nicola Jowell. Initial estimates are that power may be restored to Woodstock later this morning. Restoring power to the CBD and Atlantic Seaboard is likely to take longer, and electricity may only return this afternoon, Jowell said. City spokesperson Priya Reddy has said the City is preparing a statement, which will be released shortly. 

- Nicole McCain

"The current situation is that it is the Eskom main feeder line that supplies the City of Cape Town is down. While repair work is underway the city department is also looking at all additional emergency options that can be used," said ward 54 councillor Nicola Jowell in an update on her Facebook page.

City of Cape Town crews have been working through the night to restore power to areas affected by the outage. It appears repairs were delayed by a fire at a substation, and this fire has affected a main feeder line. City representatives are expected to provide an update shortly.

- Nicole McCain

The City of Cape Town said at 23:00 on Monday night that "contingency plans are in place and will be implemented shortly. Power should be restored within a few hours". 

UPDATE | High voltage line fault leaves parts of Cape Town without power

A fault involving at least one high voltage line has left large parts of Cape Town without electricity.City of Cape Town spokesperson Priya Reddy said a "big supply fault" on Monday evening led to the sudden blackout.

The City's Twitter account called it "a technical fault on the grid".

Cape Town's mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said at least one high voltage line was down across the N1.