EThekwini Municipality says electricity has been restored in most areas affected by a major power outage following a trip at its Klaarwater major substation, which left many parts of the city in the dark.
An explosion at the 275kv Klaarwater electricity substation, which is a key supply point to the City from Eskom, occurred on Tuesday evening, causing multiple power outages across large parts of Durban and surrounding areas.
In a statement on Wednesday, the municipality said the City’s Electricity Unit started to restore supply on Tuesday night, area by area.
“This is done in a controlled and very careful sequence to limit the risk of further faults and further damage. There is unfortunately confirmed extensive damage at our Shallcross substation, which could take up to 48 hours to repair, [and] unfortunately, some customers in this area will remain off for now.
“Our teams are working around the clock to restore supply to as many customers as quickly as possible, but at this juncture, we cannot provide specifics until we have completed our inspections, which cover an extensive area of overhead HV lines from the Klaarwater area as far as Waterfall in the outer west,” the municipality said.
It said the strong winds and lightning around 07:00 pm to 08:30pm appeared to have been the primary cause of the faults, but “this cannot be confirmed 100% at this stage.”
“We can confirm that the supply has been restored to all substations with the exception of Shallcross. The City’s technicians are still on site to ensure full restoration of electricity as Shallcross is still affected by the outage. The municipality would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused,” the municipality said. – SAnews.gov.za
