Eskom informed the Western Cape Government (WCG) that it is still on track to restore power to the Central Karoo and that the repairs are ‘near completion’.
The power utility’s teams are hoping to complete their work earlier than anticipated, but for now, the restoration date remains Thursday, from midday onwards.
This comes after heavy storms knocked down seven pylons, leaving the towns of Roggeveld, Laingsburg, Ladismith, Leeu Gamka, Swartberg, Merweville, Matjiesfontein and Prince Albert in the Western Cape, as well as Fraserburg and Sutherland in the Northern Cape, without power for the past 12 days.
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In a daily update meeting between Eskom, Premier Alan Winde, WC Minister of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Anton Bredell and senior members of the WCG, the power utility said restoring power was on track since all temporary structures needed were in place and the current stringing of conductors should be completed later today.
‘The focus will now shift from a repair project to the gradual restarting of an entire electrical network,’ said Eskom.
Premier Winde noted that the government will be closely monitoring the restart tomorrow alongside the power utility.
‘This process is described as a “cold start” because restarting the grid will take a number of hours,’ said Winde. ‘There may also be other outages or disruptions as a result of the grid restarting.’
Eskom explained that the restarting involves seven substations and several cold transformers in Laingsburg and the surrounding area. The gradual process, which involves warming up the transformers, will commence from 12pm on Thursday.
‘People can expect to have electricity later during the day, depending on how the process unfolds,’ added Minister Bredell.
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Ahead of the scheduled restart, Winde is appealing to members of the affected communities to work with authorities during the restarting process.
‘I understand how frustrated and desperate people are feeling after over 12 days without Eskom power. You as residents can play a huge role in making this reconnection of electrical power successful,’ said Winde.
‘Please ensure all appliances in your house or business are switched off to avoid a large and sudden load on the network. Please allow some time for the network to stabilise and reconnect your devices gradually to the live power.’
‘I know that many of you will want to start recharging your devices and warming up your geysers, but we do need to manage demand and switch on our appliances and geysers in a phased manner,’ he added.
WCG said it will be supporting Eskom during the process, as government services currently using generators will continue running these generators for some time to help lessen the load on the cold network.
Residents are also requested to report any electrical faults to Eskom during the cold restart, as Eskom expects that there is a strong possibility of other disruptions as a result of the reconnection process.
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Food relief efforts by the Department of Social Development (DSD) in affected parts of the Central Karoo are continuing, with hundreds of households in various towns and informal settlements having been assisted over the past few days.
Concluding the joint statement, Winde thanked all role players for their hard work during this time.
‘This has been a herculean task, compounded by various factors, but by coming together and combining our efforts, we are on track to restore power to all affected by tomorrow. I want to thank the residents for their patience. This has been an exceptionally difficult time for them.’
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