Morale improves as power is restored

Date: 04 April 2014 By: Frans van der Merwe

The morale of 1 000 residents  from 234 households in the Braambos residential area of Air Force Base Makhado improved even more as they could witness the reconnection to Eskom electricity in the area, while further progress of the repairs could be seen on a daily basis.

The first four streets were connected on Thursday last week and have since been receiving uninterrupted Eskom power.

Braambos residents were left without Eskom electricity for more than a year after a high-voltage cable that feeds the Eskom supply to the area exploded in October 2012 and the base had had to make use of 13 standby generators to supply electricity to the residents since then.

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

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

In the meantime, the use of standby generators is still an interim support measure by the Air Force to assist 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 a continuous supply because of  regular  failures.

The running cost of the 13 standby generators during the past year ran into more than R1,2 million per month to supply the residents with electricity.

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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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