Veld fires trip Sebenza substation causing Johannesburg outages

Aug 2024Published 29 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

SignificantOther

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supply cut for about •• daysShown in the record →Full estimate

From the recordRoot cause

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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): City Power

What happened

On 19 August 2024 City Power reported that the Sebenza Substation tripped because of veld fires. The outage affected customers in parts of Alexandra, the inner city, Midrand and areas served by the Reuven Service Delivery Centre. Johannesburg Emergency Services attended to extinguish the fire beneath the transmission station. City Power operators were dispatched to restore supply once the fire was contained. The duration of the outage was not confirmed at the time of the announcement. City Power advised that regular updates would be issued to customers and cautioned residents against actions that contribute to veld fires. The company apologised for the inconvenience caused.

Contributing factors

Veld fires in the vicinity of the substation.

Lessons learned

Maintain regular vegetation management around substation perimeters to reduce external fire exposure.
Establish rapid response protocols with local emergency services for fire events near grid assets.
Provide timely public updates during outages to minimise customer impact.

More lessons on maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, emergency response and public communication, from every incident on the register.

Source

News24 (news24.com)

Published 2026-09-29. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

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The record behind this entry

The record behind EIR-1583 holds the site, the operator, the root cause and the fire service response as fields you can filter, count and export, with its source and their verification status. Companies are named in the roles the sources give them. Being named is not a finding of fault.

Site: ••••••••••••
Operator: •••••••••
Root cause: ••••••••••••••••
Fire service response: ••••••••••
Sources: ••••••••

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