January 31, 2006
By Ndaba Dlamini
SILAS Zimu has been appointed the acting chief executive of Johannesburg City Power from February, taking over from Kenneth Mohlala, whose five-year-term has come to an end.
Under a government decision to set up a new Regional Electricity Distributor (RED) merging City Power and Eskom, Zimu, the former vice-president of operations at the Joburg utility, will make way for a new chief executive who will head the new company.
REDs will take over the distribution of electricity nationally to cut costs and to standardise tariffs. However, Eskom will continue to generate and to transmit electrical power.
Zimu takes the reins at a time when City Power is focusing on Operation Vuselela, a five-year project to upgrade its ageing electricity network.
Power outages across Johannesburg became an increasing problem for the electricity utility and much of the blame was placed on ageing electricity infrastructure, cable theft, illegal connections and vandalism.
However, the ever-increasing population in the city and burgeoning housing developments also placed an increasing demand on the network.
Under Operation Vuselela, City Power is to spend about R2-billion, an average of R400-million a year. The utility plans to reduce the average age of its equipment, replace obsolete equipment and upgrade overloaded networks to compensate for the natural and anticipated load growth.
Unsafe equipment will be removed and stock and equipment across the city will be standardised, reducing downtime and allowing for a better use of emergency stock.
According to City Power, Joburg's electricity network already has been strengthened, particularly its 11kv cables. About R147,2-million was spent on electricity infrastructure during the 2003-04 financial year and upgrades were done in areas such as Dainfern, Illovo, Fordsburg, Kibler Park and Ennerdale.
The City has spent more than R3,6-billion since 2000 on improving the electricity network. About R400-million was made available during 2004-05, some of which was used to buy power transformers, to upgrade the overloaded mini sub-stations and to convert 6,6kv networks to 11 kilo volts.
And all this work is paying off; according to a report reviewing City Power's performance from July to September last year, overall power outages were down compared to the same period in 2004.
The utility recorded 53 fewer medium power outages than the 1 340 baseline. However, there were 10 more bulk outages recorded, with 5 569 low voltage outages.
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