TO RESOLVE the ongoing electricity outages in Lotus Park and Orient Hills, city electricians have begun installing a new main cable for a more reliable power supply.

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The 240mm medium volt (MV) cable will be just over 1.7km long and will connect Isipingo’s major 3062 substation to Lotus Park’s 6507 substation. Ward 90 councillor, Shad Nowbuth, said the installation work is scheduled to take a month.

“Several requests were made to eThekwini Municipality’s Electricity Department from as early as September 2022 to address the issue of the regular unplanned power outages that not only affected the quality of life of the communities of Lotus Park and Orient Hills but also caused huge financial losses for many. The Electricity Department has acknowledged that the present MV cable which is problematic and which has resulted in frequent outages in Lotus Park and Orient Hills will be replaced with a new cable,” said Nowbuth.

Responding to whether Lotus Park and Orient Hills residents will no longer experience unplanned outages, Nowbuth said the replacement of the problematic cable will reduce the failure rate of the cable. He said no guarantees can be given that those communities will no longer experience power outages in the future.

Theft and vandalism at substations have been a major problem in Isipingo, however, Nowbuth pleaded with the community to look after the infrastructure that provides municipal services to them.

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