Property owners are encouraged to maintain their trees and vegetation, if they haven’t already done so. The South African Weather Service has advised heavy rain and gale force winds can be expected from today for the next few days. Stormy weather usually contributes to an increase in power outages especially where tree branches grow over and into overhead power lines.

The City’s Electricity Generation and Distribution Department has made every effort to minimise electricity outages caused by trees growing alongside overhead power lines by carrying out various tree clearing efforts in preparation for winter storms. Vegetation growing too close to overhead power lines is especially dangerous.

In the aftermath of these massive storms, prolonged electricity outages in various areas across the metro are common. City teams worked day and night to attend to hundreds of power outages across the metro after a recent storm. Electrical infrastructure in areas across the metro was affected by the stormy weather causing some flooding and uprooting of trees.

Residents are encouraged to be mindful that they may also experience outages due to Eskom's load-shedding. When power is restored after load-shedding, nuisance tripping sometimes occurs. This is when the power is restored to an area and fails to come back on in some parts. The power outage often goes unreported because residents assume that it is due to load-shedding. In the event of load-shedding, residents are encouraged to reduce the risk and occurrence of nuisance tripping by switching off appliances, including geysers, air conditioners and pool pumps prior to load-shedding and leaving one light on to indicate the return of the supply.

‘Prolonged outages often occur due to the sheer volume and severity of faults which are caused by damaged electricity infrastructure due to the strong winds and rain. Unfortunately, we can’t predict how long it will take to restore individual faults but where there is damage, City teams will work as hard as they can to restore power.

‘The City encourages property owners to maintain their trees and shrubs to ensure that they do not encroach on overhead lines to avoid possible inconvenience during stormy weather. Property owners or those renting a property are urged to do this maintenance work while taking safety precautions and to ensure the required clearance of at least 3,8 metres between vegetation and power lines. Residents are also reminded that branches that encroach on streetlights diminish their efficacy. Clearing of overhead lines can be dangerous and property owners can approach the City for advice if they have already let trees grow too close to power lines. Working together, we can avoid the inconvenience caused to our residents when power lines are struck by trees during a storm,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti.

• Should residents be concerned that there is a risk of trees on City property encroaching on City overhead power lines, they are encouraged to report these cases to the City’s Fault Reporting Centre on 0860 103 089 or FaultReporting.Centre@capetown.gov.za.
• Please note, during inclement weather, service requests increase and this can also impact on the time required to fix an outage. The City thanks all residents for their understanding.
• Due to the high call volumes which the Electricity Call Centre is likely to experience, customers are encouraged to instead make use of SMS or email to report electricity outages.

Contact us:
SMS: 31220 (electricity faults)
Email: power@capetown.gov.za

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