Eskom and City Power have reenergised the Randburg substation following the theft of 10 000 litres of oil on the substation’s transformer.
The oil was drained from the transformer last week in what was described as an act of vandalism on the substation with cables also stolen on a second transformer.
“This momentarily affected electricity supply to the residents of Randburg. Supply to the customers was soon restored as soon as City Power was able to replace the stolen cable. Eskom has been working around the clock to repair and refuel the transformer.
“This process involves refuelling more than 10 000l of the stolen oil, circulating and purifying it so that City Power can take load,” a joint statement read.
The two power utilities noted that there has been increased incidents of vandalism to substations, “resulting in the loss of revenue and increased replacement costs for both organisations”.
“These criminal acts do not only affect the power utilities but they inconvenience law abiding, paying customers and community service points such as healthcare and education facilities, businesses and the economy at large,” the statement read.
The power suppliers called on citizens to report any criminality on electricity infrastructure.
“Members of the public are requested to partner with Eskom and City Power by reporting electricity related criminal acts such as cable and transformer oil theft, illegal connections and vandalism of electricity infrastructure.
“They are also asked to refrain from recording and sharing material that is not factual about outages as this may lead to confusion and panic amongst the affected customers. Customers are urged to use our communication platforms to obtain reliable and correct information,” Eskom and City Power said.
Source: South African Government News Agency