The DA in Govan Mbeki calls on the MMC for Technical Service, Lwandile Ziwele to provide the council with an updated report on the remedial actions aimed at curbing electrical losses across the municipality.
The municipality’s electricity distribution loss was sitting at an alarming 63%, far above the national norm of between 7-10%. The losses comprise both technical losses (10%) and non-technical losses (53%).
A year ago, the municipality communicated that measures have been put in place to develop a turn-around strategy to further curb both the losses, these include:
- A 30MVA new substation project at Bethal and Emzinoni.
- Refurbishment of the old main substation in Embalenhle through the installation of the new switchgear with numeric relays, vacuum breakers and remote switching;
- Planned refurbishments on ring substation 3 with the inclusion of the SCADA for ease continuous condition monitoring and predictive maintenance;;
- Cutting illegal connections across informal settlements
- Installation of new functional electricity smart meters for accurate reading and revenue enhancement.
It is critical for the municipality to exercise quality workmanship on these projects considering that the energy division was subject to numerous outages during the peak winter season as a result of the restrictions that were imposed by Eskom.
As the head of Energy in Govan Mbeki, one of MMC Ziwele’s responsibilities is to ensure that electrical supply is up to standard and that projects are implemented accordingly.
The DA will not tolerate any negligence on these projects and monitor that the municipality carries out these projects timeously.