Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has said that load shedding continues to severely impact the City's teams who have tried to attend to the large storm and load shedding-related area outages.
The City has said that more than 7 000 storm and load shedding-related service requests have thus far been resolved and "work continues in earnest".
"Storm and load shedding power outages continue to be experienced in areas across the metro. Eskom’s load shedding has also contributed to the challenge of restoring power and/or the high number of service requests due to nuisance tripping among others. This has had a ripple effect on City operations.
"Customers are encouraged to make use of SMS or email to report electricity outages. They are also encouraged to log their own service requests via e-Services but to please only use one channel and not log multiple requests as duplication causes delays," the City said.
Some larger area outages are being attended to in parts of Belhar, Belthorne Estate, Sunnydale, Grassy Park, Lotus River, Retreat, Bergvliet, Rylands, Brooklyn, Southfield, Wynberg, Diep River, Claremont, Heathfield, Meadowridge, Steenberg, Schaapkraal, Fish Hoek, Noordhoek, Nyanga, Constantia Bel Omre, Constantia Hills, Chapman’s Peak Estate, Kensington, Tafelsig, Belhar, Gugulethu, Philippi, Bishopscourt, Kenilworth, Eikendal, Rondebosch and Wetton areas, among others.
"Unfortunately delays are to be expected due to the sheer volume of faults caused by the damaged power infrastructure and the large area outages. We are unable to say how long it will take to restore individual faults but we are working as hard as we can."
Trees affecting power lines, infrastructure
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Property owners are encouraged to maintain their trees and vegetation. Stormy weather usually contributes to an increase in power outages especially where tree branches grow over and into overhead power lines.
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The City’s Electricity Generation and Distribution Department has made every effort to minimise electricity outages caused by trees growing alongside overhead power lines by carrying out various tree clearing efforts in preparation for winter storms. Vegetation growing too close to overhead power lines is especially dangerous.
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Property owners or those renting a property are urged to do this maintenance work while taking safety precautions and to ensure the required clearance of at least 3,8 metres between vegetation and power lines. Residents are also reminded that branches that encroach on streetlights diminish their efficacy. Clearing of overhead lines can be dangerous and property owners can approach the City for advice if they have already let trees grow too close to power lines.
Should residents be concerned that there is a risk of trees on City property encroaching on City overhead power lines, they are encouraged to report these cases to the City’s Fault Reporting Centre on 0860 103 089 or [email protected]
Nuisance tripping
The City has encourages residents to discern if the may be experiencing outages due to Eskom's load shedding, because when power is restored after loa shedding, nuisance tripping sometimes occurs.
"This is when the power is restored to an area and fails to come back on in some parts. The power outage often goes unreported because residents assume that it is due to load shedding. In the event of load shedding, residents are encouraged to reduce the risk and occurrence of nuisance tripping by switching off appliances, including geysers, air conditioners and pool pumps prior to load shedding and leaving one light on to indicate the return of the supply," the City said.