February 7, 2005
By Thomas Thale
THE R53-million project to replace ageing electricity cables in the suburbs of Roodepoort, west of the city, is on track to be completed ahead of the onset of winter.
Andy Musson, manager responsible for executing capital projects at City Power, gave an update on the work during a briefing in Roodepoort on Friday, 4 February.
The project has seen City Power workers digging trenches on the pavements and driveways of suburbs across Roodepoort to replace 106 kilometres of old, rotten cable.
The initial phase of the project, which covered the suburbs of Weltevreden Park, Constantia Kloof and Helderkruin, is almost complete and the next phase is set to commence in the suburbs of Wilropark, Roodekrans and Ontdekkers Park, says Musson.
He pledged that City Power would replace and restore all the driveway and pavement lawns and paving damaged during the excavation. "We want our customers to be happy."
The suburbs had experienced constant power outages in recent years, mainly as a result of the rotting cable, said Musson.
"There was no pattern to the power failures. They were not caused by rain or overload," he added.
"We instituted a study two years back, and discovered that a lot of power failures were caused by the first generation PEX cable installed in the area 40 years ago. This is not a conventional cable and it doesn't last as much it was originally thought."
Over the years, explained Musson, water penetrated the cable, severely damaging it. "It took just a small disturbance in the cable to cause power failure."
In the process of digging trenches, some only 100 millimetres deep, City Power discovered: "We would hit the cable, inadvertently causing power failures in the area." Parts of the cable were so rotten that a small disturbance of the ground around it would result in power failure.
Musson said the old cable was only 16 millimetres wide, and, at 185 millimetres, the new cable has a lot more capacity.
He expressed confidence that once the cable has been upgraded, the incidence of unscheduled power failures in the area would be dramatically cut.
For now though, Musson expressed satisfaction that the network in Roodepoort has the capacity to serve the area adequately. "The area has enough capacity for whatever is there at this point in time."
City Power spokesperson, Sol Masolo, added that in its efforts to upgrade electricity infrastructure throughout the city, the utility was hampered by cable theft, vandalism and illegal connections.
"We will be engaging the City to put in place by-laws to protect the electricity network and institute severe penalties for anyone tampering with it."
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