Pretoria - The City of Tshwane put its money where its mouth is by refurbishing and doubling the capacity of the Kosmosdal substation, which serves residents and businesses in Centurion.
This according to mayor Randall Williams who yesterday unveiled the substation with its capacity upgraded from 20MVA to 40MVA at a cost of R65 million.
The City had been refurbishing its infrastructure and had already unveiled upgraded substations as it sought to increase capacity to address the exponential growth of communities and replace the old technology.
Williams said: “This is a moment that we should all be proud of. The provision of stable power supply is critically important for the economic development of our City.
“During both the State of the Capital address and the budget speech we emphasised that our multi-party administration was committed to prioritising critical infrastructure maintenance and refurbishment. It is therefore important that we live up to this promise made to our residents and the business community.
“Today’s handover speaks to our commitment to creating a business conducive environment in the City of Tshwane, ensuring that we attract investment to drive economic growth and jobs creation.”
This project was triggered by a 20MVA new bulk electricity application from developer Growthpoint Property Group for their proposed data centre development in the area.
“Working together, the City began work to upgrade the substation in February last year until the completion of the project on July 12. The substation upgrade will now allow for the development of the data centre and create economic growth and job opportunities in the area.
“I thank Growthpoint Property Group and City officials for their hard work and successfully completing this project on time.”
Williams said he was encouraged that other businesses would be attracted to the area and more job opportunities created.
“I want to emphasise that our multiparty administration under my leadership is committed to maintaining and refurbishing all critical infrastructure.”
Last month, the City handed over a R96m upgraded Bronkhorstspruit substation. It should soon also conclude upgrades to Soshanguve substation.
“Bronkhorstspruit was having continuous power outages, so what we have done there was to refurbishment the substation to increase capacity.
“The demand was 28MVA, but the station could only handle a capacity of 20MVA. We upgraded and totally refurbished the substation and increased the capacity to 80MVA, with a spare capacity of 40MVA.”
Williams added that the City was prepared for new developments in Bronkhorstspruit for the next 30 years.
Pretoria News