By Thomas Thale
CITY POWER, the City's electricity distribution utility, has announced a five-year, R2-billion programme to overhaul Johannesburg's aging electricity infrastructure and eradicate outages in the city.
Some of the projects to upgrade the infrastructure are under way already, and others have been completed, resulting in a more reliable power supply in the areas concerned. Under the programme, substations and cables will be upgraded, transformers and switchgears will be refurbished and public lighting will be installed throughout the city.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, March 16, Councillor Brian Hlongwa, who is responsible for municipal services, said the City had developed a master plan to upgrade existing infrastructure and replace that which was obsolete in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Hlongwa said the City spent R500-million in the past two financial years, to meet its infrastructure needs and developmental goals.
In the current financial year, which ends in June, the City was spending R400-million on electrical infrastructure. This amount would be increased to R674-million in the 2005 / 06 financial year, "representing more than one third of the city's total capital expenditure". This would be followed by R473-million and R470-million in the 2006 / 07 and 2007 / 08 financial years respectively.
The money would be invested in network refurbishment, new services and public lighting, said Silus Zimu, the vice-president of the operations group at City Power.
Hlongwa attributed rampant power outages in the city to aging infrastructure, antiquated equipment, massive development and a population explosion, and apartheid planning. "We are redesigning the city from scratch."
Zimu said City Power had appointed consultants, including the original equipment manufacturers, reputable consulting firms and a technical team from Eskom, the electricity supplier, "to conduct both refurbishment and load growth analysis".
The companies appointed are Rotek Engineering, Siemens, ABB, Alstom, Hawker Siddley, NetGroup, PSW and Eskom PTM Technical Investigation. They were working on different aspects of the upgrade in different parts of the city to reduce outages, Zimu said.
A major aspect of the programme would be to refurbish 52 transformers identified as high risk. "Some of those transformers date back to the 1930s and have outlived their lifespan," Zimu said, adding that new 10 transformers had already been ordered and were to be delivered in the near future, with the first one arriving next week.
However, Hlongwa highlighted the complexities involved in procuring transformers from a limited number of suppliers in the world. There was intense competition for the limited number of transformers on the market, with Iraq ordering many of them. He said the City was working with the national Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Public Enterprises to communicate with the suppliers.
Zimu said switchgears, protection relays and back-up protection would also be refurbished.
Mogwailane Mohlala, the president and chief executive officer of City Power, said there had been concrete improvements in areas where upgrades had been undertaken. "There has been visible change. In Roodepoort for instance, where we spent R60-million installing 120km of new cables, outages have been drastically reduced."
Hlongwa pledged that the City would sign service level agreements with Eskom and City Power respectively to ensure that the programme succeeded, "otherwise heads will roll".
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