Joburg freeze: City Power outages double to 6 000 as cold snap bites

Johannesburg faced a crisis on Wednesday as City Power’s backlog of outage calls doubled from 3,000 to more than 6,000 overnight. Persistent rain, light snowfall, strong winds, and extreme cold weather battered Gauteng, with the provincial weather bureau warning the adverse conditions would persist through the rest of the week. As the freezing cold snap put electricity demand beyond the grid’s limits, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena warned that the spike in demand was partly due to people seeking warmth and completing household tasks.

Mangena explained that the demand was spiking higher than anticipated, putting immense pressure on City Power’s systems. He noted that the outages, particularly in the Hurst Hill area and the Delta substation, had caused numbers to surge, despite teams working overnight to address the issues. The city’s ageing infrastructure was also a significant factor, as it cannot recover loads as swiftly as required, largely due to a lack of investment in maintenance and improvements.

City Power has now deployed all available technicians and contractors to stabilise the supply, focusing on critical hotspots. While climate change was raised as a broader challenge, Mangena acknowledged that each stormy season brings problems, and the current cold snap had put significant pressure on the grid. Despite the strain, City Power is doubling its efforts to improve the situation.