Eskom is helping to restore power to the large area around the City of Tshwane which suffered an outage when seven powerline pylons collapsed recently. The power utility has supplied three massive monopoles to carry the 132 kV powerlines. These locally manufactured monopoles are 23 m high, have concrete bases, and are more resistant to vandalism.
Tshwane will supply another nine, 20 m high, pylons to carry the powerlines further.
The collapse of the seven pylons on Sunday was mainly due to strong winds. However, although they were designed to withstand high winds, thieves who robbed the structures of steel bracing strips weakened the structures significantly (see image below).
The resultant power outage affected a large part of the Tshwane Metropolitan area.
Work is ongoing and it is unclear when power will be fully restored to the area.
