Stellenbosch and other parts of the Overberg region were without electricity on Monday evening, despite Eskom announcing the end to stage 2 loadshedding.
Eskom explains Stellenbosch power outage
In a statement, the power utility confirmed that at approximately 21:50, the Stellenbosch area lost its connection to the grid. Much of this, the utility said, was owed to “an explosion at the Stellenbosch substation in Devon Valley.”
Areas that were affected by this outage were the Stellenbosch municipality, Koelenhof, Cloetesville, Lynedoch, De Zalze, Kylemore and surrounding areas.
“The fire was caused by equipment which exploded, known as the Firgrove 132kV feeder white phase current transformer (CT). The fire brigade and Eskom technicians were dispatched to site. The technicians safeguarded the equipment and restored supply to the customers,” the statement read.
Based on their reading, electricity supply returned to the region a few minutes after midnight.
‘Explosion impact to be assessed’
Eskom explained that while the issue is being investigated by technicians, it’s unlikely that the explosion was a direct attack on infrastructure.
Still, the power utility is leaving nothing to chance.
“Eskom will be on-site today to assess the damage and effect the necessary repairs,” the statement concluded.
Will loadshedding return this week?
After five days of rotational power cuts, Eskom announced that it anticipates no loadshedding this week. Of course, this all rests on the hopes that nothing untoward will be reported from power stations.
“While the supply situation has improved at this point, Eskom would like to request the public to continue using electricity sparingly as the system is vulnerable and unpredictable. As Eskom has regularly stated, the risk of loadshedding remains elevated while we conduct increased reliability maintenance,” the power utility stated.
