City of Joburg working on 'innovative measures’ to reduce power outages, promises Mayor Gwamanda

City of Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda announced on Thursday that the City intends to add an additional 50 MW of power to its grid by bringing online the Durban Street Substation, in the next financial year. Gwamanda was presenting the State of the City Address in Johannesburg, where he said the City has also planned for an additional 100 MW of energy by the financial year's end. “Our dedication towards avoiding loadshedding reflects in these actions aimed at protecting our citizens from discomfort and distress,” he said. He said that for “too long” the city had been struggling with the “endemic loadshedding” that has plagued South Africans. “…however, I am pleased to declare that we are taking firm measures to confront this obstacle directly. We recognise that we cannot tackle this crisis alone. It is for this reason that we have established partnerships with the Gauteng provincial government and Eskom to address it collectively,” he said. He noted and said he appreciated the increased focus on planned maintenance at Eskom, which he said had allowed the City to enjoy a temporary reprieve from loadshedding over the last month, with predicted record low stages of loadshedding for the coming winter months. Gwamanda noted that through the City’s partnership with the Gauteng government and Premier Panyaza Lesufi in particular, the John Ware substation's open gas turbine has been brought back into operation, enabling the infusion of a noteworthy 50 MW into the City’s network.