City Power has spent more than R267 million over the past four years to replace low voltage copper overhead power lines (LV Lines) with Aerial Bundle Conductors (ABC) to reduce power outages and curb cable theft.
According to the City of Johannesburg a further R360 million will be invested in this aluminium infrastructure which is less prone to theft over the next three financial years, bringing the total expenditure over a seven-year period to more than R627 million.Making the switch
The decision to replace copper LV Lines was taken during the 90-Day Mayoral Programme in 2011 when, under Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau, five projects were identified to improve service delivery. Included in the five projects was the rollout of new electric meters and replacement of the ageing copper LV Lines with the ABC system. According to Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Matshidiso Mfikoe, the system was piloted in Chrisville and Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, and Hyde Park and Bramley in the north at a cost of R14.84-million in 2011-2012. The expenditure was increased to R123.9 million the following year. The budget for the project in 2013-2014 was R78.3 million and R60-million in the current financial year.“The purpose of this project is to convert the current problematic low voltage distribution system to a more desirable and reliable system in various identified areas. With copper LV lines, when we experience a lot of wind accompanied by rain, power lines are tripped and we have outages. But with these ABC conductors, we don’t experience that.
“There have been fewer power outages in affected areas since we installed the ABC system. These conductors are made of aluminium encased in tough PVC sheathing and are of less value to the thieves,” says Mfikoe.
