Randpark Ridge households without power after mini-substation failure
Sept 2026Published 7 Oct 2026Responsible editor: George, Chief Editor
Companies named in this entry: City Power
What happened
Electricity supply to 50 households in Randpark Ridge was restored on 5 October 2026 after a two-week outage. The failure was caused by a burnt-out winding in a mini-substation that had also been vandalised. City Power ordered a replacement unit on 27 September because the damaged unit could not be refurbished. Full supply returned at about 21:00 after the new unit was installed. The outage had first been reported on 25 September.
Contributing factors
Vandalism of the mini-substation and absence of a suitable replacement unit in stock contributed to the extended duration. Adjacent mini-substations were too distant for temporary cabling without risking overload.
Lessons learned
- Maintain adequate stocks of common substation components to reduce replacement lead times.
- Verify outage notification details against the actual location to avoid confusion during extended events.
- Review contingency plans for sites where generators or temporary feeds cannot be deployed quickly.
More lessons on maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.
Source
Published 2026-10-07. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.