City Power says it will intensify cut-off operations to alleviate the pressure on the grid caused by illegal connections across the City of Johannesburg.
Today it pounced on two informal settlements in Lenasia and Roodepoort to remove illegal connections.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says they lose hundreds of millions of rand each year due to illegal connections.
“The illegal connections have not only been inconveniencing the paying customers, but costing the City millions in lost revenue. The operation in Lenasia Ext11 managed to cut and recover eight tons of mixed cables, including bare wires and aluminum cables, estimated to cost around R350 000.
The impact of illegal connections on our electricity infrastructure is huge as it causes overloading of the network leading to outages, and the malfunctioning of the network leaving some homes with shocking effects when they touch door handles or water taps and their gates.”
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Last year, City Power said non-payment and illegal connections within the City of Johannesburg region are costing the power utility millions of rand monthly.
It said COVID-19 also worsened the situation as more people are working from home and this has increased power consumption.
