Eastford substation back on before load-shedding

KNYSNA NEWS - Thousands of residents in Knysna who have been without electricity for 24 hours finally had their power restored at about 07:30 this morning, just in time for the latest bout of load-shedding.

The power outage affected a large portion of the town, with areas such as Brocaar, Bremmer, Hinde, Hagadashi, Brenton-On-Sea, Gouna, Heuwelkruin, Paradise and more without electricity since the 08:00 slot of load-shedding yesterday.

The electricity was due to come back on at 10:30 yesterday, and while it did for the majority of the town, a large number of people found themselves without any power.

According to Ward 10 Councillor Peter Bester, the outage was caused by 'an inrush current' that caused the main breaker at the Eastford substation to explode.

At the time of the outage Bester and Knysna Municipality, both warned that it was a major fault and that it could take a long time to repair. This was exactly the case as municipal technicians worked tirelessly to find a solution to the problem.

While a solution was found, it was only a temporary one, according to Bester. After working throughout the night, electricians finally restored power to all areas shortly before 08:00 this morning. However, this was just moments before load-shedding came into effect again.

In the past when outages such as this struck areas of Knysna, they were able to obtain emergency exemption from load-shedding. According to Bester, this was not possible on this occasion. "Because this was a municipal infrastructure failure, and not an Eskom infrastructure failure, we could not be granted emergency exemption on this occasion," he said.

He also urged residents to remember that the solution is only temporary, and "could fail at any time", but indicated that the solution is expected to hold when the power comes back on at 10:30. "It really shouldn't fail unless there is a major power surge," he said.

The very dark cloud has a silver lining though, as Knysna Municipality confirmed this morning that more permanent repairs are scheduled for tomorrow, albeit at a cost. "Emergency repairs to replace the entire panel are planned for tomorrow, 11 January 2023. There will be an interruption from 08:00 until 16:00," the municipality indicated in a media release.

Continuous testing was done at the substation breakers to find the issue.