The recent power failure, which brought thousands of businesses to a standstill for more than eight hours, was the most widespread in the spate of outages that have plagued Johannesburg over the past 18 months.
Interestingly, the outage occurred on the same day the National Electricity Regulator (NER) issued a statement following the findings of an independent audit report conducted on Johannesburg City Power, following "concern about the large number and severity of power interruptions caused by the poor state of electricity distribution in the country".
The report categorically states: "The NER is of the opinion that the City Power network is in a serious state of disrepair. Even if the maintenance and refurbishment plans are properly executed each year, it will take a number of years to bring the network back to the required level of reliability."
The findings observed a range of problems, including serious transformer leaks, insufficient maintenance of power equipment and battery systems, no budget set aside to accelerate plant refurbishment, insufficient upkeep of sites and substations, non-adherence to works procedures and inconclusive evidence that protection systems are being regularly tested.
Without proper execution, even the best maintenance system will be rendered inadequate.
Adriaan Scheeres, CEO, Pragma Holdings
According to the NER statement, City Power`s comments on the independent audit report confirm the findings to a great degree. However, the utility`s comments indicated that it was aware of most of the concerns identified and was in the process of addressing or had already taken steps to address them. City Power also argued that the identified issues were exceptions rather than the norm and that a number of the items identified had already been addressed.
City Power has subsequently indicated that maintenance and refurbishment plans have been developed to bring the network back to an acceptable state. Additional funds have also been obtained to implement these plans for the current financial year.
Little excuse
There is little excuse for this poor state of disrepair. It is well known that City Power implemented a SAP preventative maintenance solution in 2003. The utility used Pragma`s services to conduct an asset identification, verification and recording project in 10 500 sites across the province to create a complete, accurate and easily manageable record of the organisation`s assets - how and where they are used and their condition.
One would imagine that if the SAP system and the data it provides are well entrenched and managed by City Power, the province would not be experiencing breakdowns. Perhaps the problem is less about unplanned maintenance and more about bad workmanship - without proper execution, even the best maintenance system will be rendered inadequate.
Breakdowns and outages consume an inordinate amount of the budgets of any plant or facility. Without the implementation and effective execution of an asset performance maintenance system, maintenance becomes a fire-fighting measure performed only when an asset fails. Research has shown that a reactive rather than proactive approach to maintenance is three times more expensive in the long-term.
Regular condition assessment plays a vital role in asset management - without it the risk of undermining the long-term sustainability of a plant or facility and its assets is substantially increased. Condition assessment plays a crucial role in maximising the lifecycle of assets and the longevity of the plant or facility itself.
An in-depth knowledge of a facility`s assets is invaluable, empowering the maintenance teams and management to work from an accurate, detailed knowledge base for precise benchmarking, short- and long-term financial forecasting and the identification and evaluation of trends for future asset maintenance planning.
Unless City Power applies the correct maintenance programmes, it will continue to provide Johannesburg with sub-standard power supply, with long-term negative consequences for the region`s economy.
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