The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) has extended its heartfelt gratitude to all residents, businesses, and stakeholders in Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4 for their patience and understanding during the recent power outage. The fault on the 132kV overhead line, caused by gale force winds on 23 August 2024, resulted in the collapse of four pylons, affecting the electrical supply from the Summerstrand and Arlington substations.
Given the magnitude of the fault and the extensive areas affected, the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) was activated on 24 August 2024. An assessment of the damage revealed that using NMBM’s own resources would take approximately 14 days to complete the necessary repairs.
To minimise the duration of the outage, NMBM implemented several mitigation plans, including:
- Finding alternative supply routes to feed some customers from other substations.
- Relocating the 10MVA transformer from KwaFord substation to South-End substation.
- Requesting assistance from Eskom and a contractor.
The first mitigation plan yielded positive results, allowing NMBM to restore power to critical loads in the area, including the airport, South-End fire station, and Humewood police station. The targeted date for the 10MVA mitigation was 27 August, and by this date, NMBM was able to supply about 95% of the affected areas on a rotational load reduction basis due to the limited size of the transformer.
The final and most sustainable solution involved assistance from Eskom. After our joint assessment, the outage duration was reduced from 14 days to 7 days. The targeted completion date for this mitigation was 01 September 2024. We are pleased to announce that Eskom and the contractor successfully completed all the work on target, and all customers were reconnected to the network on 01 September 2024.
While there are still some teething problems following the restoration of supply on 31 August 2024, these were anticipated due to the prolonged outage and complexity of the restoration efforts.
We sincerely thank all affected customers for their patience during this challenging time. We also extend our gratitude to Eskom, the contractor, and our dedicated staff for their unwavering commitment. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
NMB Communications
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