A planned 12-hour power outage in Somerset West and the Helderberg ran well beyond schedule, leaving thousands of residents without electricity for much of Sunday.
Now that the electricity has finally been restored, I can honestly say the outage lasted far longer than many of us expected.
Preparing for a planned 12-hour interruption is one thing. We charged our phones and laptops, made sure torches were ready and expected the power to return at 06:00 on Sunday, exactly as the City had advised almost two weeks earlier. The biggest challenge wasn’t simply the delay itself, but not knowing how much longer we would have to wait.
By Sunday morning, it was cold, wet and miserable. The hot water had long since run out, many of us were trying to preserve what little battery life remained on our phones, and households across the affected suburbs were left wondering when electricity would be restored. We even ended up charging our phones in the car just to check for updates, only to find very little new information available.
The City eventually issued an update at 13:14, advising residents that electricity was now expected to be restored by 18:00. Delays can happen, especially during large infrastructure projects and winter weather, and I think most residents understand that. What was more frustrating was the lack of communication during those seven hours between the original restoration time and the first official update.
Even a brief message explaining what had happened, sharing an updated estimate or simply confirming that work was still underway would have helped residents plan the rest of their day with a little more certainty.
Thankfully, the electricity returned around 35 minutes after the afternoon update, well before the revised 18:00 estimate.
Infrastructure upgrades are part of maintaining a growing city, and most of us appreciate the need for that work. Hopefully, if similar large-scale outages are needed in future, residents can also expect more regular communication when delays occur.
If you’re looking for the original City announcement, including the list of affected suburbs, outage times and safety advice issued before the maintenance began, you can read my original report here.
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