WATCH | Durban major substation explosion leaves most parts of the city without power

substation explosion

Cape Town – An explosion at the Klaarwater major substation reportedly left most parts of Durban in the dark on Tuesday.

The eThekwini municipality said it was aware of the trip out at their major substation when it issued a power outage update on Twitter.

According to the municipality, the substation was a key supply point to the city from Eskom.

“Staff are investigating. We will give an update when we have confirmed feedback from onsite electricians,” the municipality said.

In another statement on its Facebook page, the municipality said they started to restore supply area by area last night.

“This is done in a controlled and very careful sequence to limit the risk of further faults and further damage. There is unfortunately confirmed extensive damage at our Shallcross substation, which could take up to 48 hours to repair, so unfortunately some customers in this area will remain off for now.

“Our teams are working around the clock to restore supply to as many customers as possible, as quickly as possible, but at this juncture we cannot provide specifics until we have completed our inspections, which cover an extensive area of overhead HV lines from the Klaarwater area as far as Waterfall in the outerwest,” said the statement.
However, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini claimed to have received reports stating that power had gone off or was fluctuating in many parts of the city, reported TimesLIVE.

“We have subsequently been advised by the electricity unit  that there has been an explosion at the 275kv Klaarwater major substation which caused widespread power outage in the northern, western, central and southern regions of the city,”  the report quoted DA member of the eThekwini executive committee, Yogis Govender as saying.

The political party warned that the major outage may require some time to repair and urged residents to unplug all major and/or non-essential appliances.

“Affected residents are urged to unplug all major and/or non-essential appliances.  We are liaising with officials and senior management. Technicians have been dispatched and we will be monitoring the restoration closely to ensure that it is expedited,” Govender said.

Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Picture: Twitter/ @NobodyyyyyyyJB

For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com 

Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe 

Article written by