Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Thought For The Day

Several of our clients have had problems associated with large surges as well as in two cases the loss of a neutral which basically blows all your 220v appliances. The loss of a neutral results in 400v flowing through your 240v appliances. Not good for TV sets, Microwaves , motors, globes etc. My point?
Well here we are getting all excited about ESKOM and associated weak infrastructure and minimal generation capabilities but what about City Power and their ageing and redundant network. In the "glory days" there was preventative maintenance that was budgeted for, so typically underground cables were upgraded on a 20 year cycle. Overhead transmission lines underwent more regular maintenance as did the substations. The council installed all infrastructure and the town planning department were involved so everyone knew what was going on. In recent years developers with some grease money have gone ahead with developments with the infrastructure cut to the bone, this infrastructure is then connected to a municaple bulk supply and handed over to the home owners association to maintain. In many cases city power was not able to supply enough power for the development. The amalgamation of our smaller well run efficient, knowledgeable municaple offices int the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan council has been a disaster. We have lost so many technically proficient people

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