• Just this morning, City Power logged over 2 000 calls from residents reporting unplanned power outages across Johannesburg.
• The utility says that the recent wet weather has delayed repairs and restorations of electrical infrastructure, among other issues being faced.
• City Power urges customers to use electricity sparingly and pleads for continued patience as thousands remain in the dark.

The team behind the City Power Twitter account has been busier than usual lately.

Johannesburg’s electricity infrastructure maintenance firm usually deals with unplanned outages across the city, but in the last few days, outages have snowballed uncontrollably.

Just this morning City Power reported that around 25 areas of the city are without electricity due to infrastructure issues, including regions from Randburg, the inner city, Hurstill and all the way to Roodepoort. Some areas have been without power for more than 15 hours, according to customers.

By late morning today, the company says it clocked over 2 000 outage calls.

It’s chaos on @CityPowerJhb as Johannesburg’s citizens flock to the account for the only reliable source of information the company has. It’s over one million followers are desperately trying to figure out why the power has gone off hours before scheduled loadshedding.

The City Power website is no help when it comes to informing citizens about unplanned outages. The latest reported unplanned outage was on 30th October 2020.

City Power says that is struggling to maintain unrelated breakdowns in infrastructure across Johannesburg due to delays caused by the recent heavy rains, and other issues.

“The outages are caused by, among others, overloading, multiple cable faults, cable theft, vandalism and flooded chambers. The impact of loadshedding cannot be ignored,” the company says in a statement published on Twitter.

#OutageUpdate #CityPowerUpdates #JoburgServices #JoburgUpdates

City Power appeals for patience from customers as we attend to major unrelated outages
across the City of Joburg .^OS pic.twitter.com/B0qaZXLgts

— @CityPowerJhb (@CityPowerJhb) November 14, 2022

As its maintenance teams are attending to outages, it says the rainy weather is “disrupting and delaying” repair and power recovery efforts.

“Our system is also under tremendous pressure with our resources stretched,” it adds. The company apologises for any inconvenience caused. It is also urging citizens to use power sparingly and unplug any non-essential electronics, especially during loadshedding.

It says it will continue to update customers on Twitter in a bi-hourly manner.

Last week, the City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena told EWN that the company would be “beefing up teams of technicians and delivering operators in problematic areas to ensure that we restore electricity to the affected customers.”

Mangena said that areas in Roodepoort, the inner city and Randburg were major pressure points for the company. These areas often experience equipment failures, and cable theft and were very susceptible to the impact of loadshedding on infrastructure.

But since Mangena’s comments, the outages have gotten worse and with no sign that the heavy rains will be easing any time soon, Joburg residents have no other recourse but to wait in the dark.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]