Smoke rising over a burning Eldoraigne substation in Centurion. SUPPLIED.
Plumes of smoke could be seen rising over Eldoraigne substation in Centurion on Saturday afternoon due to a burning transformer that caught fire.
This comes almost a month after a Mooikloof substation went up in flames, plunging many areas into darkness.
The Eldoraigne incident took place around 14:00 on Saturday and firefighters from Doringkloof Fire Department were dispatched to put out the blaze.
Also at the scene were the affected ward councillors and MMCs, who kept abreast residents about work done at the substation and possible time of power restoration.
MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Kingsley Wakelin informed residents on social media that one of their transformers caught fire and it was quickly extinguished by the City of Tshwane’s dedicated firefighters.
For hours many households experienced power outages before it was eventually restored at 18:00 after the electrical team finished working on fixing the substation.
The areas that were affected included Wierdapark Ext 1, Celtisdal, Raslouw, Hennops Park and Eldoraigne.
The City said the damage was extensive on cabling and control units were burnt.
“Although the transformers, panel rooms and panels were not burnt an extensive assessment had to be done to clear the transformer. An alternative transformer on site was used whereby the affected areas were switched over and transferred to ensure that we don’t overload the system,”the City said.
The City said although the reason for the fire still needed to be determined suspicion was cable vandalism and theft to the control cable feeding to the transformer could be behind the cause of fire.
“This still needs to be confirmed once the investigation is completed,” the City said.
The City said the substation was not badly burnt compared to the Mooikloof substation, which caught fire last month and left residents in Pretoria east without power for days.
The Mooikloof 132/11kV substation experienced an explosion, resulting in a fire on Transformer B and the 11kV panels.
The incident was caused by a fault originating from one of the 11kV power lines outside the substation.
RAPULA MOATSHE
rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za