Near total power outage hits country

AS most Namibians made their way to work shortly before eight yesterday morning, almost the entire country was hit by a power blackout.

With the exception of the Caprivi, whose electricity supply comes from Zambia, the power went dead simultaneously in all other parts of the country. It took just little more than an hour and a half to restore power everywhere.In the capital, chaos ensued as traffic lights went dead at around 07h53 and, once in their offices, people were at a loss on how to start the day’s activities – unable to use computers, telephones or even to make a cup of coffee.Power utility NamPower said that a veld fire had caused a fault on a supply line from South Africa, sparking the outage.NamPower’s Chief Technical Advisor, Reinhard Jagau, said the country depended on South Africa for about 20 per cent of its total electricity supply and was therefore vulnerable to damage to the southern power lines.Namibia is supplied from the Aries substation near Kenhardt in the Northern Cape.This substation is fed by two 400kV transmission lines that form the 400kV Northern Cape ring.At the time of yesterday’s power failure, one of the two transmission lines was down while maintenance work was being carried out by South African power provider Eskom.A line fault on the other line feeding the Aries substation left not only most of Namibia without power but also the Northern Cape.NamPower said yesterday that the blackout occurred too fast for the local system to adjust to carrying the load.The hydropower scheme at Ruacana was running at full capacity – about 249 megawatts – at the time, but also tripped while struggling to cope with both Namibia and the Northern Cape’s demand.At peak times, Namibia needs about 380 megawatts of power – and its demand at the time of the outage yesterday morning would have been in the region of about 320 megawatts.While Eskom restored supply to Namibia almost instantaneously, it took NamPower at least 45 minutes to reconnect power to its major customers, and by 09h31 the entire country was reportedly back on line.Jagau said that the system had to be re-energised in stages to ensure it was working properly again.NamPower’s biggest customers, the mines and municipalities, were reconnected first.The power utility apologised for the inconveniences caused as a result of the outage.It took just little more than an hour and a half to restore power everywhere.In the capital, chaos ensued as traffic lights went dead at around 07h53 and, once in their offices, people were at a loss on how to start the day’s activities – unable to use computers, telephones or even to make a cup of coffee.Power utility NamPower said that a veld fire had caused a fault on a supply line from South Africa, sparking the outage.NamPower’s Chief Technical Advisor, Reinhard Jagau, said the country depended on South Africa for about 20 per cent of its total electricity supply and was therefore vulnerable to damage to the southern power lines.Namibia is supplied from the Aries substation near Kenhardt in the Northern Cape.This substation is fed by two 400kV transmission lines that form the 400kV Northern Cape ring.At the time of yesterday’s power failure, one of the two transmission lines was down while maintenance work was being carried out by South African power provider Eskom.A line fault on the other line feeding the Aries substation left not only most of Namibia without power but also the Northern Cape.NamPower said yesterday that the blackout occurred too fast for the local system to adjust to carrying the load.The hydropower scheme at Ruacana was running at full capacity – about 249 megawatts – at the time, but also tripped while struggling to cope with both Namibia and the Northern Cape’s demand.At peak times, Namibia needs about 380 megawatts of power – and its demand at the time of the outage yesterday morning would have been in the region of about 320 megawatts.While Eskom restored supply to Namibia almost instantaneously, it took NamPower at least 45 minutes to reconnect power to its major customers, and by 09h31 the entire country was reportedly back on line.Jagau said that the system had to be re-energised in stages to ensure it was working properly again.NamPower’s biggest customers, the mines and municipalities, were reconnected first.The power utility apologised for the inconveniences caused as a result of the outage.