City Power is out of stock needed to replenish 14 mini substations that were vandalised in Johannesburg. 

The utility has already replaced more than 390 vandalised mini substations in the last year. Roodepoort was the hardest hit with eight incidents, followed by Reuven with four.

According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the utility loses an average of two mini substations a day due to theft and vandalism.

To complicate matters, he said City Power was unable to keep up with the high demand for mini substations due to higher stages of loadshedding.

"The impact of loadshedding is high on our infrastructure, with mini substations and transformers blowing up or being stolen. Since the recent higher stages of loadshedding, City Power has been losing mini substations faster than we can replenish them," Mangena added.

Over the last year, in which Eskom imposed at least 205 days of loadshedding, City Power replaced in excess of 390 mini substations at the cost of R200-million, he said.

"This is the reason we have currently run out of stock of mini substations. More mini substations have been ordered, and we are expecting deliveries from this coming week due to the long lead time nature of the commodity and festive closure of most factories," he said.

"It must also be mentioned that the impact of high demand on mini substations has left a huge dent in our budget, and as it is, we have already spent 80% of our budget for the whole financial year."

On average, one mini substation supplies 100 households, Mangena said.

The areas impacted by vandalised mini substations in Roodepoort include Lufhereng, Roodepoort CBD, JG Strydom, Witpoortjie, Wilgeheuwel, and Weltevreden.

"Unfortunately, the above areas, and those in other [service delivery centres] cannot be restored until we receive the stock of mini substations. We appeal for calm and patience from our customers as we work hard to address this shortage," Mangena said.