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R6.7 m to keep lights on in Buffalo City
Posted on: Tuesday, 06 February 2007. Article source: Eastern Cape Business News
Buffalo City council has approved a R6,7-million plan to prevent East London's Central Business District from being plunged into darkness for up to two weeks, according to a news report.
Faced with increasing public "jitters" over the perilous state of East London's electricity supplies, the council also voted to commission an electricity "master plan" for electricity upgrades over the next decade.
The decision came one day after a blackout along the coast from East London to Kei Mouth that left parts of Gonubie without power for more than 12 hours.
It also follows a warning by the Buffalo City Municipality last week that parts of East London, including the CBD and suburbs from the Quigney to Bonnie Doon to Braelynn, could be without electricity for up to two weeks if the last functional transformer at Stoneydrift switchyard gets knocked out.
The warning triggered jitters among the business fraternity, which has already lost business and perishable stock in the wave of power cuts that have hit the city in recent months.
The area is currently being supplied by a 33-year-old transformer operating at 98,9 percent capacity.
"This is clearly unacceptable," read a report on the state of electricity supplies tabled at Wednesday's council meeting.
Buying a new 90 MVA transformer for the city centre would cost R20-million, and would take the manufacturer two years to build and deliver.
The decision to commission a master plan was a proactive step to ensure that the lights do not go out and to factor in future planning.
"This is something we must do now," said Buffalo City Municipality's engineering services director, Shaun Peard.
A draft of the municipality's latest annual report paints a bleak picture of an electricity network that is in a "poor" condition, while budget constraints are forcing the department to cut down on maintenance work and equipment upgrades.
The results are "frequent outages and a poor quality of supply to consumers".
Meanwhile, the main Stoneydrift transformer N damaged in a storm late last year N has been sent to Johannesburg for inspection. A report is expected on Monday - Sapa
Faced with increasing public "jitters" over the perilous state of East London's electricity supplies, the council also voted to commission an electricity "master plan" for electricity upgrades over the next decade.
The decision came one day after a blackout along the coast from East London to Kei Mouth that left parts of Gonubie without power for more than 12 hours.
It also follows a warning by the Buffalo City Municipality last week that parts of East London, including the CBD and suburbs from the Quigney to Bonnie Doon to Braelynn, could be without electricity for up to two weeks if the last functional transformer at Stoneydrift switchyard gets knocked out.
The warning triggered jitters among the business fraternity, which has already lost business and perishable stock in the wave of power cuts that have hit the city in recent months.
The area is currently being supplied by a 33-year-old transformer operating at 98,9 percent capacity.
"This is clearly unacceptable," read a report on the state of electricity supplies tabled at Wednesday's council meeting.
Buying a new 90 MVA transformer for the city centre would cost R20-million, and would take the manufacturer two years to build and deliver.
The decision to commission a master plan was a proactive step to ensure that the lights do not go out and to factor in future planning.
"This is something we must do now," said Buffalo City Municipality's engineering services director, Shaun Peard.
A draft of the municipality's latest annual report paints a bleak picture of an electricity network that is in a "poor" condition, while budget constraints are forcing the department to cut down on maintenance work and equipment upgrades.
The results are "frequent outages and a poor quality of supply to consumers".
Meanwhile, the main Stoneydrift transformer N damaged in a storm late last year N has been sent to Johannesburg for inspection. A report is expected on Monday - Sapa
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