Thousands of residents and businesses across Nelson Mandela Bay remains without electricity following a vandalism incident that occurred at Mount Road substation over the weekend.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality confirmed that the power outage began at approximately 03:45 on Sunday morning when thieves targeted the cable oil pump station, causing both 66kV transformers to trip, affecting both primary and backup electricity supply systems.
The incident has left eight major areas without power including North End, parts of South End, Kensington, Central, Mount Road, parts of Newton Park and parts of Walmer.
Despite the widespread outage, municipal officials confirmed that circuit breakers that feed hospitals, municipal buildings and the airport are being brought back into service.
“Repairs to the stolen pipes on one of the main 132kV cables have been successfully completed,” the municipality said in a statement on Sunday evening. “The technical team is now pumping oil through the 4km line at a carefully controlled rate to ensure stability and safety.”
In a social media post on Monday 25 August, Ward 7 councillor Brendon Pegram praised the dedication of technical teams working around the clock to resolve the crisis.
“Despite the challenges, I want to assure you that the teams have been working tirelessly throughout the night to resolve the issue,” Pegram said. “As of now, electricity supply has been successfully restored to certain areas, which is a positive development.”
However, Pegram acknowledged that temporary solutions have had mixed results. “The temporary solution of back-channeling, which involves utilising other substations to electrify affected suburbs, has not been universally successful. Some areas remain without power and the teams are committed to finding a solution.”
The municipality has apologised for the inconvenience caused and urged residents to remain patient as technical teams work to fully restore electricity supply across all affected areas.
“The team has been carefully pumping oil through the full length of the affected cable to build up the correct pressure needed before electricity can safely be restored. This is a delicate process that requires constant monitoring to avoid further damage.”
According to the Municipality electricity should be restored by tonight, Monday 25 August.
“While we have not yet reached the required levels, we remain hopeful that this will be achieved by midday or later this afternoon,” the statement read. “Once the correct pressure is reached, a vital filtration process must follow after which electricity supply is expected to be restored this evening.”
