Lightning plunges the capital into darkness

WINDHOEK on Sunday night experienced what it would be like to be hit by a power shortage when nearly the whole City was plunged into darkness – in some areas for up to two hours.

Households were forced to scramble for candles and streets went even darker, public lighting went out and the traffic lights stopped working at 20h31. But the power failure had nothing to do with load shedding.It was caused by lightning damage to the 66 kV line between the Van Eck Power Station and the Goreangab load centre, the Windhoek Municipality said yesterday.City Spokesperson Ndangi Katoma said the power failure was as a result of a 66 kV line breaker at Van Eck malfunctioning, which caused the breakers upstream to trip.Three of the four feeds in Windhoek were lost and power was eventually restored through the remaining working feeder.When the Windhoek load centre went down, a portion of Windhoek Central, Klein Windhoek, Avis, Pionierspark, the Southern Industrial Area, Suiderhof, Dorado Park, Hochland Park and Rocky Crest were all without power.It came back on in these areas and in the Olympia and Kleine Kuppe areas, which are fed through the Olympia load centre, at 21h38.Areas fed through the Kupferberg load centre such as Pionierspark, Prosperita, Academia and Cimbebasia could turn their lights back on at 22h00.Khomasdal and the Ramatex Factory (the biggest single consumer of power in Windhoek) had their power restored by 22h02.Power to Katutura, Goreangab, Okuryangava, Hakahana, Khomasdal, Wanaheda, Otjomuise and the Gammams Waterworks was eventually restored at 22h09.A minute later the Goreangab Reclamation Plant and the Otjomuise Water Works came back on line.The Lafrenz Industrial Area was the last part of Windhoek to have its power restored after the outage at 22h30.The Central Business District, eastern and northern parts of Katutura, Eros, the Northern Industrial Area and Windhoek North and West were unaffected.Namibia was warned in January that it could soon feel the effects of diminished power supply in South Africa after one of the units of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in Cape Town was damaged.The replacement 200-ton rotor to repair this unit arrived in Cape Town from France last week.Namibia has been forced to pull out all stops to make the most of its own power-generation sources in the wake of diminishing imports from South Africa during the Koeberg crisis period.Cape Town, which has been faced with hours upon hours without power since January, is hoping that South African power utility Eskom will be able to stave off an extra-cold winter as the power station prepares to begin compulsory maintenance on Koeberg’s second unit soon.NamPower’s Chief Technical Advisor, Reiner Jagau, told The Namibian last week that Namibia’s power supply would remain unchanged until Koeberg was once again operating at full capacity.He said NamPower remained in continuous contact with Eskom on supply management matters and that Namibians were urged to use power sparingly.But the power failure had nothing to do with load shedding.It was caused by lightning damage to the 66 kV line between the Van Eck Power Station and the Goreangab load centre, the Windhoek Municipality said yesterday.City Spokesperson Ndangi Katoma said the power failure was as a result of a 66 kV line breaker at Van Eck malfunctioning, which caused the breakers upstream to trip.Three of the four feeds in Windhoek were lost and power was eventually restored through the remaining working feeder.When the Windhoek load centre went down, a portion of Windhoek Central, Klein Windhoek, Avis, Pionierspark, the Southern Industrial Area, Suiderhof, Dorado Park, Hochland Park and Rocky Crest were all without power.It came back on in these areas and in the Olympia and Kleine Kuppe areas, which are fed through the Olympia load centre, at 21h38.Areas fed through the Kupferberg load centre such as Pionierspark, Prosperita, Academia and Cimbebasia could turn their lights back on at 22h00.Khomasdal and the Ramatex Factory (the biggest single consumer of power in Windhoek) had their power restored by 22h02.Power to Katutura, Goreangab, Okuryangava, Hakahana, Khomasdal, Wanaheda, Otjomuise and the Gammams Waterworks was eventually restored at 22h09.A minute later the Goreangab Reclamation Plant and the Otjomuise Water Works came back on line.The Lafrenz Industrial Area was the last part of Windhoek to have its power restored after the outage at 22h30.The Central Business District, eastern and northern parts of Katutura, Eros, the Northern Industrial Area and Windhoek North and West were unaffected.Namibia was warned in January that it could soon feel the effects of diminished power supply in South Africa after one of the units of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in Cape Town was damaged.The replacement 200-ton rotor to repair this unit arrived in Cape Town from France last week.Namibia has been forced to pull out all stops to make the most of its own power-generation sources in the wake of diminishing imports from South Africa during the Koeberg crisis period.Cape Town, which has been faced with hours upon hours without power since January, is hoping that South African power utility Eskom will be able to stave off an extra-cold winter as the power station prepares to begin compulsory maintenance on Koeberg’s second unit soon.NamPower’s Chief Technical Advisor, Reiner Jagau, told The Namibian last week that Namibia’s power supply would remain unchanged until Koeberg was once again operating at full capacity.He said NamPower remained in continuous contact with Eskom on supply management matters and that Namibians were urged to use power sparingly.