Pretoria - Residents and business people in Pretoria east are keeping their hopes up for brighter days as the City of Tshwane starts refurbishing the vulnerable Wapadrand Substation.
This was after Executive Mayor Randall Williams launched a three year R134 million refurbishing project of the substation that suffered two fire incidents which subjected communities to prolonged power outages.
Williams said the substation continued to catch fire because it was built with old technology and commissioned in 1989 for a much smaller network of communities.
Last year, Chief of Staff Jordan Griffiths said the City finally received a R77 million insurance payout for a fire that took place in 2018. The City began working on a tender to have the substation rebuilt and capacitated to deal with the load that expanded as the demand grew.
Resident and members of the Wapadrand steering committee Andre van der Riet said: "We are really hoping this is the beginning of a new dawn but what concerns us is that fire is always a constant problem and we want to know how they are going to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"It is all good and well to say the new buildings will be set up to ensure fire does not spread across the infrastructure but our concern is how they put in measures to make sure it it put out before it burns a component to avoid some people ending up in the dark again.
"At this point residents and business people are keeping their hopes up for the best because in the meantime, while they are still building, they cannot guarantee that there will not be anymore power interruptions."
Williams said, unfortunately, the reality was that some of the City’s electricity infrastructure is ageing rapidly and requires regular maintenance and refurbishment.
"This does not come cheap, but as the City under my leadership we have committed to priority investment in critical infrastructure to enable economic growth in the City," said Williams.
The City's Head of Sub Transmission Management Itumeleng Shibisi said the scope of work would take place in four phases, which include: demolition of the existing building that was damaged by fire last year; construction of a new substation building to house three 11kV Panel stages; installation of a 35MVA transformer; relocating supply cables to a newly build substation; and construction of a guardroom.
Mike van der Walt and Susan Louw, who asked for their businesses not to be named, said they hoped the City could finish this project without interruptions and breakdowns in between because businesses could not make a profit spending money on diesel for back-up generators.
Williams said: "Refurbishment and upgrades to our infrastructure enables economic growth as it will cater to increasing demands, support residential developments and businesses.
"Furthermore it is important to ensure that residents see their taxes being deployed to critical service delivery items such as this one and the refurbishing and maintenance of critical infrastructure.
"This refurbishment project reaffirms our commitment to render excellent service delivery to all corners of Tshwane."
Pretoria News