Full investigation underway following explosion at Aloes substation
Published: March 12, 2023<< BACK TO NEWS
The explosion led to an electricity blackout of surrounding areas within Motherwell including 15 Coega IDZ (Industrial Development Zone) customers.
Led
by the Executive Mayor, Cllr Retief Odendaal, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality
held an emergency JOC meeting, to trigger swift action to circumvent the impact
of this explosion and get into the bottom of what might have caused it..
Following
the JOC meeting, a full independent investigation into the causes of the
explosion has been launched as there is a suspicion of foul play. Today, the
Municipality will be meeting the CDC and affected businesses to develop a
solution that will mitigate adverse impact of the constrained electricity
supply.
The
damage to the substation infrastructure is estimated to be more than R40million.
As
a short-term electricity solution, and to circumvent further negative impact on
customers and residents, plans are currently underway to back-feed and restore
electricity supply from another substation also within the Coega IDZ.
On
a medium-term, a line will be constructed to reconnect the affected residents
and IDZ customers from a nearby substation, while construction work continues.
A
contractor is already on site to restore electricity on the short to medium
term. Security is currently being re-inforced to protect critical strategic
infrastructure.
Residents
are encouraged to be vigilant and work together with the Municipality and law
enforcement agencies to curb vandalism and criminality targeted at Municipal
infrastructure that provide basic services to our community.
The
Municipality would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the
unexpected outage. We are working hard to restore power to the affected
residents and businesses.
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