Power restored to eastern Joburg after veld fires knocked out Sebenza substation

Electricity supply returned after fires damaged Sebenza substation

City Power confirmed that electricity had been restored to customers who lost power after veld fires spread beneath high-voltage lines and caused the Sebenza substation to trip, triggering outages across the eastern corridor of Johannesburg.

What happened

City Power said the fires started under the cables supplying the substation, which in turn supplies at least 21 other substations across the eastern part of the city. The substation’s failure produced a cascade of outages affecting numerous suburbs and facilities.

Areas affected

The blackout reached suburbs and services including Edenvale, Sebenza, Founders Hill, Longlake, Greenstone, Modderfontein, Rand Aid, Elphin Lodge, Sandringham Police Station and the National Health Laboratory Service. City Power also named areas across the eastern corridor such as Bertrams, Alexandra, Melrose and a long list of streets, suburbs and standby supply nodes supplied by the affected network.

Firefighting and repairs

Johannesburg Emergency Management Services attended to extinguish the flames before City Power technicians could access the affected sites. City Power said engineers carried out inspections and assessments once areas were declared safe, and then switched supply back on.

City Power noted that restoring supply after lines trip is time-consuming because of the work required after such incidents. Earlier in the day the utility said it was “hoping that we’ll be starting to restore power by later this afternoon after the fire has been put out by the emergency services.”

Warnings and current status

The utility thanked customers for their patience while fires were extinguished and restoration work was carried out, and urged residents not to start veld fires or burn vegetation near electricity infrastructure.

“This remains an increasing concern during the dry winter season, as veld fires pose a serious threat to substations, high-voltage power lines, transformers and other critical electricity infrastructure,” the utility cautioned.

City Power confirmed that all affected customers had their electricity restored by the time of the article’s publication. Customers still experiencing isolated interruptions were advised to log a fault via citypower.mobi or contact the call centre on 011 490 7484.