Western Cape commence preparation to reconnect Karoo with Eskom electricity
14 February 2024
Eskom has informed the Western Cape Government (WCG) that it is on track to reconnect electricity to the Karoo from 12:00 midday onwards tomorrow, 15 February. This is possible since all the temporary structures needed are in place and the stringing of conductors is progressing and should to be completed later today. The focus will now shift from a repair project to the gradual restarting of an entire electrical network. This update was shared during a daily update meeting between Eskom, Premier Alan Winde, Anton Bredell, Western Cape MEC of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning as well as senior members of the Western Cape Government earlier this morning.
“We will be monitoring the restart tomorrow very closely with Eskom. This process is described as a ‘cold start’ because restarting the grid will take a number of hours. There may also be other outages or disruptions as a result of the grid restarting,” noted Premier Winde during the briefing.
“Eskom informed us that the restarting involves 7 substations and several cold transformers in Laingsburg and the surrounding area. This will be a gradual process that involves the warming-up of transformers, starting at 12:00 tomorrow, and people can expect to have electricity later during the day, depending on how the process unfolds,” MEC Bredell said.
“I want to appeal to the public to please work with us during the restart. I understand how frustrated and desperate people are feeling after over 12 days without Eskom power. You are residents can play a huge role in making this reconnection of electrical power successful. Please ensure all appliances in your house or business are switched off to avoid a large and sudden load on the network. Please allow some time for the network to stabilise and reconnect your devices gradually to the live power. I know that many of you will want to start recharging your devices and warming up your geysers, but we do need to manage demand and switch on our appliances and geysers in a phased manner” Premier Winde said.