Power crisis nears end

Date: 20 March 2014 By: Frans van der Merwe

If not for the recent rains, the first four streets of households at Air Force Base (AFB) Makhado would have been connected to Eskom electricity during the course of last week.

More than 1 000 residents from 234 households in the base’s Braambos residential area were left without electricity after a high-voltage supply cable that feeds the Eskom supply to the area exploded in two places on 10 October 2012. This was apparently followed by two more explosions five days later. Although the Department of Public Works was immediately informed of the explosions and subsequent total power outage, the department was slow in responding to the crisis. For more than a year the base had to make use of 13 standby generators at a running cost of more than R1,2 million per month to supply electricity to the residents.

The contractor expects to connect these avenues by the end of this week, allowing the first four generators to be removed from service. New electric cables have been partly installed.

According to a media release by the base, the use of standby generators is still an interim support measure by the Air Force to assist the 234 households with an ongoing supply of electricity. The generators are still maintained and serviced by air force technicians of the base on a daily standby schedule. In case of breakdowns, the base is assisted by 5 Air Servicing Unit from AFB Waterkloof in Pretoria, while standby generators are used to provide an uninterrupted power supply.

The general domestic situation has been stabilised, but many hours of overtime are still being worked by technicians to ensure ongoing electricity, in spite of regular failures.

Since the appointment of a contractor by the Department of Public Works in November last year, progress has been good and the repair of systems and facilities such as substations and mini-substations is currently on schedule.

After the connection of the first four streets at the end of this week, the first four generators will be kept on standby for the interim until full testing has been completed at the end of the repair project, estimated to be at the end of April.

According to a statement by Brig Gen Schalk van Heerden, the officer commanding AFB Makhado, the morale of members has improved as progress of repairs can be seen on a daily basis. “On the lighter side of the situation, households that receive their electricity from the generators have not been affected by the recent load-shedding programme of Eskom," Van Heerden said.

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Frans van der Merwe

Frans van der Merwe is a freelance journalist with more than 40 years experience in the newspaper industry. Apart from newspaper reporting, he was also involved with radio news, news reading, training and marketing. He has been living and working in Louis Trichardt since 1991.

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