HESSEQUA NEWS - And then there was darkness, again.

Earlier in the week, on Sunday, a prolonged power outage lasted in the Hessequa region, escalating till Monday morning.

Lightning strikes caused damages to the cables and overhead distributions lines.
There was loadshedding between 18:00 to 20:00 and 00:00 to 02:30. After loadshedding at 20:00, Eskom discovered a fault that tripped the entire feeder supplying Riversdale, Still Bay, Melkhoutfontein Gouritsmond and Jongensfontein.

At 21:44, Eskom managed to restore supply to Still Bay, Albertinia, Gouritsmond, Jongensfontein and Melkhoutfontein.

Further faults caused Riversdale to remain isolated.

Eskom then requested the Hessequa team to fault find their networks in the two towns.

The fault affecting Riversdale was identified at 23:13. The repairs were done by the Hessequa Technicians and the Service Providers and were completed at 04:00 on Monday. Supply was fully restored at 05:14.

A fault affecting Jongensfontein tripped Eskom supply at 04:13 on Monday. The fault was fully repaired at 16:36.

Residents can expect such disruption in the future - especially in the winter months with our rainy season, as storms do cause damages to the electrical infrastructure.
However, there is not much to be done to reduce the inconvenience, due to the impact of natural causes for outages. Contingency measures are in place to respond and that includes critical spares as well as equipment.

The Hessequa Municipality proposes the following advice to residents to reduce frustration and inconvenience: All electrical apparatus must be switched off during stormy weather and during outages including loadshedding. This ensure that when supply is restored, there is no damage due to inrush currents.

‘Ons bring jou die nuutste Tuinroete, Hessequa, Karoo nuus’