Time to install Solar: The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality wishes to inform residents that a 132kV circuit breaker tripped at the Chelsea–Arlington line, resulting in Yet Another Power Outage in several areas. A standby technical team has been dispatched to investigate and restore supply as soon as possible.
Update: According to Retief Odendaal early this morning the breaker probably tripped as a result of Yet Another Pylon collapsing.
NMBMM Update on Power Supply Disruption in Summerstrand and Walmer:
11 March 2026, 11:10 – Member of the Mayoral Committee for Electricity and Energy, Cllr Ziyanda Mnqokoyi, together with Acting City Manager Adv. Lonwabo Ngoqo and Acting Executive Director for Electricity and Energy Mr Bernhardt Lamour, are currently on site at the Chelsea, Arlington, Walmer, Summerstrand transmission line following the collapse of a pylon overnight.
The incident has resulted in a power supply disruption affecting parts of Summerstrand and Walmer.
Municipal electricity teams, engineers, and appointed contractors are already on site and work is underway to stabilise the line and implement emergency restoration measures.
Earlier this week municipal technical teams conducted oversight inspections on the line after identifying structural concerns on several pylons. Following that inspection, the municipality began initiating the required procurement and budget processes to prioritise urgent repairs on the affected infrastructure.
Unfortunately, one of the pylons collapsed overnight before the scheduled intervention work could begin.
The municipality has now activated an emergency repair programme. Initial technical assessments indicate that restoration work may take up to 10 days due to the complexity of rebuilding the collapsed structure and securing the line safely.
All available technical resources have been mobilised and contractors have been instructed to accelerate work wherever possible in order to restore electricity supply to residents as quickly as possible.
In the longer term, the municipality is also prioritising funding to refurbish and strengthen the full Summerstrand line to prevent similar incidents and improve long term electricity reliability in this corridor.
We fully understand the frustration and inconvenience this outage is causing residents and businesses. The municipality will continue providing regular updates as work progresses on site.
Areas currently affected include:
- Summerstrand 132kV Substation:
- Summerstrand (up to the Marine Hotel)
- Humewood
- Forest Hill
- Southdene
- Sections of South End
- Summer Dunes
- Happy Valley
- Marine Towers
- Strand View
- The Boardwalk area
- Courtyard Hotel and surrounding areas
- Cape Recife Waterworks
- UPE
- Technikon Village
- Kurumanskloof and surrounding areas
- EP Command
- SAWTRI
- Arlington 132kV Substation:
- Arlington Drift Sands (ADS)
- Driftsands Lovemore Park (DLP)
- Miramar
- Pari Park
- Providentia
- Schoenmakerskop
- Schoenmakerskop Village
- Walmer (9th Avenue area)
- Walmer Dunes
- Sections of Walmer Heights
- Walmer Industrial
- Walmer Location
- The Willow area
Our technical teams are attending to the matter, and further updates will be communicated as more information becomes available. Residents are kindly asked for their patience while restoration efforts are underway.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
