Eskom

Failures within Eskom’s area of responsibility

From 1 September 2024 to 12 February 2025, we had 14 Eskom outages, lasting anywhere from 10 seconds to nearly 6 hours. Here’s what’s been causing them: Environmental factors:

• Lightning strikes, fires, strong winds, etc.

• Vandalism and theft: Damage caused by criminal activities.

• Aging infrastructure: Worn-out equipment and structures.

Failures within the municipality’s area of responsibility

Electricity supply failures under the municipality can be grouped into two categories:

• Short-duration faults: Caused by tree branches touching power lines during high winds or rain. These faults are typically resolved by re-energizing the relevant breakers. About 20 such trips occurred mainly in the South End over the last six months, primarily due to aging infrastructure, established trees touching power lines and weather

• Long-duration outages: These are outages requiring repairs, have occurred six times since October 2024. They lasted between 25 minutes and six hours and were caused by:

  • Planned maintenance shutdowns.

  • Damage to overhead cables from weather or birds.

Preventative maintenance recommendations

To minimise outages and improve reliability, Eskom is implementing the following measures:

• Enhanced security: Funding is required to install high-security fencing around critical equipment (reclosers 5592 and 380) to deter vandalism

• Pole replacement: Eskom is requesting funds for a rock drilling truck to replace damaged poles along Leeu Gamka F3. This investment will stabilise the supply network.

• Recloser elevation: Efforts are ongoing to elevate reclosers* and control boxes to protect against theft and vandalism.

The Municipality is also in discussions with Eskom regarding the feasibility of an alternate supply line directly from Leeu Gamka to Prince Albert. This project has an estimated cost of R100 million, and deliberations are ongoing.

Our Local Efforts

• Tree Trimming: We’re working on a deal to prune trees near power lines to stop those short outages. Fewer branches, fewer problems!

Future plans

• Prince Albert Municipality is exploring the possibility of establishing a solar plant to supplement Eskom's electrical supply.

Why Solar?

• Keep the lights on even during outages.

• Lower electricity costs for the municipality and its residents.

• Go greener by lowering our carbon footprint.

This is a big project that may take over two years. Here’s what we need to do:

• Arrange Impact Studies (environmental, scenery, etc.)—this could take up to a year.

• Raise funds through grants or partnerships.

• Figure out the best way to make it work for everyone.

• Interface with Eskom, provincial, and national governments.

The municipality will provide regular updates on the progress of this project as well as engaging residents regularly.