Following several power cuts in Johannesburg, an independent audit has identified serious problems concerning the city’s electricity supplier.
These include serious transformer leaks — some at major infeed stations — and the insufficient maintenance of battery systems, the National Electricity Regulator (NER) said on Tuesday.
The NER conducted the audit of Johannesburg City Power earlier this year. It was concerned about the large number and severity of power interruptions caused by the poor state of electricity-distribution infrastructure countrywide.
The audit also found there appears to be insufficient maintenance standards for power equipment, and inconclusive evidence that protection systems are being tested regularly.
No budget is set aside to accelerate plant refurbishment, there is a lack of credible paper trails and records, and a non-adherence to work procedures. There is also insufficient upkeep of sites and substations as well as a negative impact on the environment.
”The NER is of the opinion that the [Johannesburg] City Power network is in a serious state of affairs.
”Even if maintenance and refurbishment plans are properly executed, it will take a number of years to bring the network back to the required level of reliability,” the NER said in a statement.
It said City Power’s comments on the report confirmed its findings to a great degree.
”However, their comments indicated that they were aware of most of the concerns identified and were in the process of or had already taken steps to address them.”
The NER said City Power also argued that identified concerns are exceptions instead of the norm, and a number of the concerns have already been addressed.
”The subsequent information provided by City Power indicates that they have developed maintenance and refurbishment plans to bring the network back to an acceptable state.
”They also obtained additional funds to implement these plans for the current financial year [2005/06], including the items highlighted in the NER audit.”
However, the regulator is concerned that the quality of the refurbishment and maintenance will be impaired by a lack of personnel to implement the plans in time to avoid the continued blackouts.
The NER has, therefore, decided that a three-year plan of action with clear targets will be put in place to monitor City Power’s progress in carrying out its refurbishment and maintenance plans.
They will include benchmarks for expenditures and the envisaged performance improvements. There will also be continual site inspections and audits.
The NER said it has embarked on a programme to address the large number and severity of power interruptions across the country.
One element of this is to conduct technical audits of large distributors countrywide to determine the readiness to distribute electricity in the future.
Following the City Power audit, the NER has begun audits into a further 10 distributors. They are Ekurhuleni, Pretoria, Cape Town, eThekwini, Emfuleni, Mangaung, Msunduzi, Rustenburg, Eskom Southern Region and the Nelson Mandela Metro.
The results will be made available to the public next year.
”As a regulator, we will pro-actively perform technical regulation to ensure stakeholders are well-informed of the status of the industry as well as make recommendations to the government on corrective measures,” the NER said.
Johannesburg residents were outraged on Monday as large parts of city’s north-eastern suburbs were without electricity for several hours. — Sapa