The Klaarwater substation explosion plunged most parts of Durban into darkness on Tuesday evening, but according to eThekwini’s municipality, overnight repair work has yielded some positives.
What caused the Klaarwater substation explosion?
Video footage of the Klaarwater substation explosion sent shockwaves across social media.
In a tweet, the Democratic Alliance (DA) leader in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Dean Macpherson, posted CCTV footage of the explosion, claiming that 50% of the city was, on Tuesday evening, without electricity.
“This is not going to be resolved quickly… This city is falling apart before our eyes!” he wrote in a couple of tweets.
According to metadata from one of the videos, the Klaarwater substation explosion occurred at approximately 19:57.
In an interview with eNCA, eThekwini’s head of electricity, Maxwell Mthembu, revealed that preliminary evidence suggests the explosion may have been the direct result of exposed combustible material, or a flashover, “[that] took one line down.”
“It caused a big bang and something that looked like fire. We’re still investigating the cause of the line falling down on the ground,” Mthembu explained.
The municipality also issued a statement on Wednesday morning, noting that as investigations continue, “the strong winds and lightning around 19:00 to 20:30 appear to have been the primary cause of the faults.”
“Our teams are working around clock to restore supply as quickly as possible, but at this juncture we cannot provide specifics until we have completed our inspections, which cover an extensive area of overhead HV lines from the Klaarwater area as far as Waterfall in the outerwest,” the municipality wrote.
Which Durban areas are still without power?
By Wednesday morning, most parts of Durban that were affected by the explosion had seen their power restored. However, as teams continue repair work, the eThekwini municipality revealed that only Shallcross remains without power.
Households in the Durban suburbs will likely remain without power for at least 48 hours, the City noted.
“There is unfortunately confirmed extensive damage at our Shallcross substation, which could take up to 48 hours to repair, so unfortunately some customers in this area will remain off for now,” the municipality tweeted.