Power Restored To Pinetown

18 August, 2008 18:17

eThekwini Electricity staff worked through the night to repair faulty equipment at eThekwini Electricity’s Underwood substation, after an explosion at the substation on Saturday 16 August 2008.

Residents in the Pinetown, Ashley, Hatton Estates, Farningham Ridge and Pinelands areas experienced a power outage after the explosion.

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding this critical equipment failure is currently underway. It must be recognised that eThekwini had planned to replace this aging substation as early as 2004 on the same site. However, the Environmental Impact Assessment process, which is required by law, has been seriously delayed by local resistance to this project.

Tony Dold, the Deputy Head of High Voltage Operations said, ‘The substation is equipped with main and reserve busbars, the explosion affected both busbars. This meant that supply could not be restored from the alternate busbar.’ The faulted busbar was repaired and energised at 15:00 on Sunday.

eThekwini Electricity apologises to all customers that were inconvenienced  by the outage.

For more information please contact Gugu Blose on 031 311 2282 or Tony Dold on 031 311 9002