Residents of the JB Marks Municipality in North West have been cautioned about Eskom's two planned batches of 33-hour power outages.

This is due to transformers leaking oil. They need to be repaired urgently to avoid serious damage occurring. The Potchefstroom-based municipality said residents of Potchefstroom, Ikageng Proper and Extensions Areas, Promosa, and Mohadin will be affected by the long power outage. 

Municipal spokesperson, Jeanette Tshite, said Eskom had requested an urgent power outage from 7 until 10 November, which will last for about 33 hours. Tshite said Eskom will be repairing transformers at Potch DS Substation, which is a 132/88kv substation, and at a main substation supplying power into Potchefstroom from the Hermes Substation near Stilfontein.

“On the duration of the outages there will only be one transformer with a capacity of 80 MVA available on each day. The Electrical Section and Eskom will jointly be monitoring the load throughout the process. If the demand on the day is not that high and can be accommodated on the available 80 MVA capacity of the one transformer, all areas will not be affected. In an event where the demand is higher than the available capacity and one transformer is unable to carry the load, then all areas will be off for the duration of the outage time frames on both dates.” 

The power outages are planned for 7 November from 09:00 till 8 November at 18:00 which equals 33 hours of power outage, as estimated; and on 9 November from 09:00 till 10 November at 18:00, which equals 33 hours of power outage, as estimated.

OFM News/Lucky Nkuyane Daphné/Corné