FOUR years and around R20 million later, residents of Ward 9 can rest assured that planned and unplanned power outages due to old infrastructure are a thing of the past. This is due to the upgrade of the Kragga Kamma sub-station in Framesby.
Should there, for whatever reason, be a random power outage or a fault with the system repair teams will be on the ground in no time, already knowing what the problem is, and only arriving on site to effect repairs.
The project, aimed at stabilising electricity supply to residents, included the replacement of the 22kV and 6.6kV switchgear that were installed in 1958 and 1960, respectively.
MMC for Electricity and Energy, Lance Grootboom, said this sub-station had already blown up twice due to aging infrastructure, posing a risk to the surrounding areas and employees working on it.
“The previous system was more than 40 years old, which meant that we could not obtain parts to fix or service it, thus the viable option was to upgrade it, as it covers a number of areas in Ward 9,” said Grootboom.
These areas include parts of Walmer, Mangold Park, Fairview, Westering, Cotswold and Fernglen.
According to Grootboom, advanced capabilities to remotely control the sub-station and detect problems from the operating centre are amongst the benefits of the now state-of-the-art sub-station infrastructure, resulting in reduced downtime fixing supply interruptions, and dealing with service complaints.
“In the past when there was a problem, we used to do tests to see where exactly the problem was, and what it was, before we could fix it. That would take several hours. Problems can now be detected remotely so that when repair teams arrive on site, they know exactly what the problem is and where to find it.”
Grootboom explained that for many years, the residents supplied by the sub-station could not form part of the loadshedding, but since they are now included in loadshedding, this can also be controlled remotely.
Ward 9 councillor, Heinrich Muller, said residents are happy about the new infrastructure investment that has a lifespan of 30 years.
“We had a lot of instances where the power would ‘trip’ and it took forever to find out where the problem was. The sub-station was so old that we could not even form part of loadshedding because the municipality could not switch it off.
“We are glad that the investment will reduce outages. Both residents and businesses will benefit from the upgraded facility. We are very happy with the stable and secure electricity supply and having a safer substation for officials and residents,” said Muller.
Grootboom emphasised that vandalism remains a huge concern for the metro; hence they have come up with a plan to have a team to monitor the site to ensure its safety from vandals.
“We are also looking at installing cameras and getting the community involved in taking care of the substation. As a city we are committed to supply our residents with an uninterrupted supply of electricity and this infrastructure investment will assist and support us in achieving just that,” said Grootboom.
