GQEBERHA – The Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (NMB) has confirmed that electricity restoration to all areas affected by electricity outages will commence at 14:00 today (Tuesday 27 January), following the completion of testing on the repaired 132 kV transmission infrastructure between the Bloemendal and Greenbushes substations.
This follows a five-day power and water outage that affected most parts of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
On Friday 23 January, Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor Babalwa Lobishe set a 14-day deadline to repair a damaged power line that has caused widespread electricity and water outages since Thursday 22 January.
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“The Electricity and Energy Directorate, together with the appointed specialist service provider, has completed all major construction work,” NMB said in a statement. “Testing has been concluded successfully, confirming the integrity, safety and operational readiness of the network.”
Prior to the announcement that the electricity would be fully restored, the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber released a statement advising residents to switch off all large appliances including geysers and pool pumps. “This is to prevent overloading the already vulnerable electricity grid during re-energisation. We kindly request that these appliances only be switched back on once power has been restored and remains stable for a minimum of one hour,” the business chamber’s statement noted.
