About five years ago, I made a policy decision that I would never go into an 1 000 V substation again unless it was maintained by a reputable authority.

Most 11 000 V substations are worse than 400 V substations and higher voltage substations. If a 400 V substation has a fault, there will be a big bang and that’s about it. Higher voltage substations are outside so the damage by an explosion is less than 11 000 V substations inside a substation building.

The 11 000 V substations are not designed to blow up. And, in fact, if they are well maintained, or even just sort of maintained, they are quite safe. But, as Hamlet says, “Aye, there’s the rub.” By ‘rub’, Hamlet means a difficulty.

It’s now 26 years since the first election and the current government has been in power ever since. They have deployed ‘cadres’ to many municipalities. These are government supporting politicians who have little idea on how to function in a municipality.

To begin with, in the years after 1994, this made little difference. The various engineering branches of the municipalities continued to operate as they had before and water, effluent and electricity services remained intact. But by now, of the 257 municipalities, only 8% had clean financial audits in 2019. What this translates to is that much of the municipal electrical infrastructure has not been maintained in the last ten years. Which means 11 000 V sub-stations will probably blow up if certain older circuit breakers are operated.

Over the years, it has been recognised that circuit breakers are getting older and older. Not that this is a problem as long as they are maintained (for example, the City of Cape Town has some 70-year-old circuit breakers).

But, when the foreman and engineer of the past have retired and the municipality has changed consulting engineers to a firm considered more appropriate, this all goes out the window and the 11 000 V substations become unsafe to the point that anybody who operates equipment in them is risking their life. This descent into danger is virtually unstoppable. If I was given a day to inspect the substations operated by a municipality, I could easily tell if there was any danger.

This is because I have 42 years’ experience as an electrical engineer. But this seldom happens. Municipalities, those ‘cadres’, become aware that all is not okay with regard to their 11 000 V substations and so they (knowing no better) appoint a young vibrant consulting engineer (CE) to advise them. The young CE has no real idea so he asks a switchgear supplier for some ideas.

This is not a smart idea since the switchgear supplier, sensing blood in the water, will recommend the removal of all the old switchgear and replacement of it with brand new gear which is hugely over specified but generates great fees for the CE who gets a percentage of the contract value.

Unfortunately, the municipalities can’t afford the new switchgear for all the substations and so the less important ones are left as they are, to deteriorate into time bombs. It’s very sad. The simple fact is that the municipalities used to work and used to work well. This is no longer the case. Some are okay but every so often, driving into a municipality, you note that the traffic lights don’t work. That some 11 000 V substations have the doors missing or have doors that are vandalised.

Then you know that things have fallen apart. It will not be too long now before we see an increase in deaths in municipal substations and, sooner or later, somebody will hire somebody like me to write a report and testify as to who was responsible for those deaths. The settlements will be huge. So, if you work at a small municipality, here’s my advice: get a professional to check out the condition of your 11 000 V substations and stay away from large switchgear suppliers. It will be cheaper in the long run.