POWER CUTS: Underground tour reveals scale of problems plaguing Joburg’s power infrastructure

After weeks of criticism and anger over prolonged electricity outages in Johannesburg’s inner city, Angela Rivers, executive director of the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA), emerged from an underground tour of the crippled Central Substation with a markedly different view of City Power’s efforts to restore the network.

Rivers was one of the private-sector stakeholders taken through the substation and underground infrastructure on Friday, 16 October. The delegation was shown stolen cables, old and broken equipment, the routes used by thieves to enter the network and the feeder board damaged by fire and an explosion.

For Rivers, the significance was not simply what they saw, but City Power’s willingness to show property owners the problems confronting its technical teams.

She said she was “very impressed with the level of professionalism and knowledge” of the engineering team and with City Power’s “openness to engage with us”.

“As far as the vandalism and theft is concerned, I believe them. I’ve seen it now first-hand exactly how they broke in through the walls, how they’re coming through the tunnels. They showed us everything.”

It was a notable shift in tone after JPOMA strongly criticised City Power over weeks of outages which property owners say cost millions of rands in diesel and emergency water supplies, drove tenants from buildings and damaged confidence in the inner city.

Friday’s tour also gave property owners a closer look at why restoring Central Substation has proved so difficult.

Rivers said they were shown an ageing feeder board, dating from the 1980s, which City Power had intended to keep operating while a new one was built and installed. But the old equipment failed before that could be completed.

“They had already started rebuilding a new feeder board and were hoping to fix the old one while they were installing the new one,” said Rivers.

The old feeder board subsequently caught fire and exploded and could no longer be repaired, she said.

City Power announced on Saturday that repairs at Central followed fire damage compounded by an explosion on Wednesday evening, 14 October, during an attempt to restore electricity through the feeder board.

By Saturday, about 80% of the protection cables had been laid, and teams had begun connecting them. Testing of key equipment was also under way, while transformer connections and cable terminations were being completed, the utility said.

The estimated restoration date is Tuesday, 20 October, subject to repairs and installations being completed and successful testing and safety clearances.

Rivers said City Power told the delegation that the new feeder board had now been installed and electricity would be restored in stages.

While cautious about another restoration promise after weeks of setbacks, she said the visit had left her more optimistic.

“We have no choice. We have to believe them,” she said.

But she added: “I’m pretty hopeful. More hopeful than before I went into the substation.”

Armed guards — and thieves keep coming

Rivers said the scale of the security operation protecting the infrastructure was striking.

She said Central Substation was now under 24-hour armed security and that she saw guards carrying assault rifles.

Despite this, Rivers said City Power told the delegation that thieves were still trying to gain access to the infrastructure while repair teams worked through the night.

“He did tell us that even while they’re working through the night, there are still people coming in and trying to break into the substation and steal cables at 12 o’clock at night.”

Rivers said City Power had replaced copper cables with aluminium ones in parts of the rebuilt network in an attempt to make the infrastructure less attractive to thieves.

Having seen how the underground infrastructure was being accessed and stripped, Rivers said she now accepted City Power’s explanation of the scale of the theft problem.

“The way that these guys have cut these cables up ... it’s incredible, the amount of theft that’s happening.”

City Power has told Daily Maverick that its inner-city underground network comprises about 14km of cable tunnels with multiple access points, making it particularly difficult to secure. It said theft, vandalism and interference had caused extensive damage to the network.

The utility said it was working with the SA Police Service, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, the Hawks, community policing forums and private security companies, including through armed response, patrols and tunnel sweeps, amid concerns about organised criminal activity targeting electricity infrastructure.

The security problem has become serious enough for City Power to seek assistance from the Defence Ministry to protect Johannesburg’s underground electricity infrastructure. The utility has approached the ministry for assistance, but there has been no confirmation that SANDF personnel have been deployed.

Rivers said Friday’s tour was separate from a more extensive engagement planned between JPOMA and City Power.

“Friday was a tour. We are meeting with all senior officials at City Power on 27th October for a proper round-table discussion,” she said.

Repairs continue across inner city

The Central operation is one of several major repair efforts across Johannesburg's inner city.

City Power said it had replaced 6km of 11kV cable between Selby Substation and Kazerne.

Teams attempted to restore supply on Friday night, but the cable failed because of what City Power said was vandalism on the network, delaying restoration.

Selby Central was targeted for restoration on Saturday, while further work to restore other parts of Selby was dependent on obtaining the necessary wayleave clearance from the Johannesburg Roads Agency.

At Fort Substation there was better news.

City Power said electricity had been fully restored after teams repaired all 17 medium-voltage cables damaged in the fire on 12 October.

The restoration was completed ahead of the original Monday target and returned electricity to Hillbrow, Braamfontein, Braampark, Berea, parts of the Johannesburg CBD, Doornfontein, Jorissen Street, the Civic Centre, Constitutional Court and National Health Laboratory Service.

But the restoration followed days of disruption.

In Braamfontein, the Holy Trinity Catholic Church said students preparing for examinations had been unable to charge computers or access the internet during the outage. It also reported a lack of hot water and food spoiling, which some students could ill afford to replace.

The economic consequences have also been mounting.

Earlier this month, Rivers told Daily Maverick that vacancy levels among affected property owners had increased from about 3% to 20%, while one building had lost 20 tenants in a month.

Property owners reported spending hundreds of thousands — and in some portfolios, millions — of rands on diesel, generators and emergency water supplies to keep buildings functioning during prolonged outages.

Burning tyres

The frustration is not confined to the inner city – neighbouring suburbs are also affected. In Rosettenville, Bez Valley and Malvern, residents have burned tyres during protests.

At a community meeting in Kensington Extension 5, residents complained to Ward 118 councillor Neuren Pietersen that their area was being disregarded despite residents paying for electricity and municipal rates and maintaining their properties.

Residents said they had experienced two outages, each lasting about seven days, in the past five months.

Pietersen said the problems went beyond individual equipment failures.

He explained that unrecorded repairs and modifications to City Power’s grid frequently left technical teams scrambling for days just to locate the source of a fault.

He said the situation had been further complicated by the Observatory Substation fire, which affected backup arrangements for the area.

According to Pietersen, backup infrastructure is now being run as part of the daily supply network and has been modified so many times that the area is left exposed whenever a new fault occurs. He also criticised City Power’s reporting system, noting that call-centre logs are poorly coordinated with the issue tracking handled in councillors’ WhatsApp groups.

This could result, he said, in notifications claiming faults had been resolved while residents remained without electricity.

The effect of the repeated outages is also being felt in the residential market.

An estate manager at a large residential development in the area, who requested anonymity, said that about 30 tenants had moved out during the past four months because of the electricity problems.

City Power promises infrastructure work

City Power said it would meet property owners and councillors on Monday, 19 October, to discuss planned infrastructure projects affecting customers supplied by the Braamfontein and Fort substations.

The planned work includes substation upgrades and renewals, cable replacements, restoration of network equipment and improvements to fire detection and protection systems.

City Power said the projects were intended to strengthen the network, improve supply reliability and reduce restoration times when faults occur.

The utility has acknowledged the disruption and hardship caused by the prolonged outages and thanked affected residents, businesses and institutions for their patience while technical teams work to restore and stabilise the network. DM