Roosevelt Park Substation’s critical R133 million upgrades are now complete
22 November 2019
Today, 22 November 2019, I was joined by the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager, and City Power management, including CEO Lerato Setshedi, as we launched the newly refurbished Roosevelt Park Substation in Randburg.
The substation had been undergoing significant upgrades by City Power to the tune of R133 million.
This substation has been at the heart of many of the surrounding residents’ frustration as power outages became more and more frequent over the years. Barely three months into office as the Executive Mayor, I was confronted with residents protesting the overwhelming number of outages they were enduring.
The reality is that the equipment at this substation, like many others across the City, is 65 years old. Refurbishments had not been undertaken in over 25 years.
This shocking figure is exactly what burdens the current administration. With an inherited R17 billion infrastructure backlog, it makes the job of sustaining the current power supply that much more difficult.
However, this multi-party government has worked tirelessly to address this backlog and ensure that our residents have access to quality and uninterrupted electricity supply. Over the past three years we have committed billions of rand to building and upgrading 13 substations across the city.
The Roosevelt Park Substation upgrade includes two new 88kv lines feeding from the Delta Substation, providing greater redundancy and stability for the network for the next 40 years.
Furthermore, the substation has been installed with four 45MVA transformers, a state-of-the-art control plant, three new feeder boards, and a standby board.
The control plant enhances the safety standards for City Power technicians when they need to work on the equipment. The new feeder boards also enable City Power to connect new customers to the substation without putting pressure on the electricity network.
The upgrade of this substation is therefore very important, not only to these affected residents, but also to the entire City of Johannesburg’s electrical network.
Finally, I would like to thank the DA caucus as well as members of our coalition government; the IFP, ACDP, COPE, UDM and Freedom Front Plus for their continued support in delivering quality basic services to our residents.
I am also thankful for the contributions of the EFF which, although not a member of the coalition, votes with us on an issue by issue basis.
I am hopeful that the work of this pro-poor government will continue to bring Diphetogo, meaning real and fundamental change, to our residents.
Issued by Tony Taverna-Turisan, Director of Mayoral Communications, 22 November 2019
