Power Utility Company Zesco has clarified that the power outages witnessed in some parts of Lusaka on the 15th and 16th January is due to the 10MVA transformer at Kabangwe substation on the great north which was gutted by fire.
Company Public Relations Manager Hazel Zulu has explained that yesterday 15th January 2019 between 10:00 hours and 11:00 hours, the 10MVA transformer at Kabangwe substation on the great north road was gutted by fire due to a fault on the 11 kV line that led to a yellow phase jumper snapping, short circuiting and puncturing the fins of the transformer.
Mrs. Zulu said the fire left the entire substation off and this has consequently led to loss of power supply to Kabangwe and surrounding areas affecting approximately 8,000 customers.
She has however assured the public that engineers were immediately mobilized and are still working round the clock to replace the burnt transformer and other auxiliary equipment.
Mrs. Zulu assured that power will be restored within the next 24 hours but cautioned that all supply lines should be treated as live as power may be restored before the envisaged time.
She said this in a statement issued to the media.
Was it to justify the Easter Lungu Foundation firetrucks?
ZESCO has some of the highly educated engineers in this country.
Going by what we watched on news, that transformer stayed energized for a long time under a fault without tripping. Are these engineers really working?
This is ZESCO brother, as for me I am done. I am using my own power sources for now. Even before this transformer burning in Kabangwe, the power supply in Kabangwe, Roma, Foxdale and those areas is a erratic. There is an outage every other week. As for Kabangwe, there is a maintenance and maintenance sms every week, and there is an institution called Energy Regulation Board in Zambia. Believe me it is there, unbelievable yet
yellow phase jumper cut causing short circuit ,at such high voltage protection system must trigger in seconds from the supply and supplied equipment. contractors should be supervised by zesco engineers if this done than care and maintenance should be carried out
So this fire has been there since last year? because every day some parts of Lusaka have been experiencing power cuts.