Spotlight on streetlights remains as 12 000 repaired in June

Over 31 days from May 26 to June 25, City energy teams fixed close to 12 000 streetlights from a total of 35 900 energy-related requests.

'Vandalism, theft and illegal connections across the metro continue to impact turnaround times as damaged infrastructure often needs to be entirely replaced, which could take many hours or even days in some cases," said mayco member for Energy,  Xanthea Limberg

"We have various interventions to reduce the risk of these crimes, but as always, we need the help of our residents to report suspicious activity of their neighbourhood power infrastructure.

"The impact of inclement weather, especially in winter times, also can be seen in the number of streetlight outages.

"Wet and windy weather often increases the number of service requests and also may slow down turnaround times as it is typically dangerous for our teams to do electrical work in wet and windy weather. Over the period in review, Area East which includes Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof and Parow had the highest number of streetlight-related outages."

Some R1.3bn capital expenditure has been set aside for the current financial year, including R75.5m on the City's street and public lighting programme.

In line with the energy efficiency strategy, the City is expanding its LED streetlight replacement programme with a R160m injection over the next three years.

A total project amount of R183 m for pioneering small-scale embedded generation programme has also been set aside, and some R57m to enhance the power output capabilities of the soon-to-be completed Atlantis Solar plant with the first battery storage project.

Report suspicious behaviour to the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre: 021 480 7700The SAPS remains the lead authority in crime prevention.

Get your news on the go, click here to join the Cape Argus News WhatsApp channel.

Cape Argus