Johannesburg’s electricity utility City Power is finalising the design of a comprehensive security solution for its network, which was seriously compromised during a wildcat strike in early September, leaving residents across several suburbs without power for days.

Engineering operations director Louis Pieterse tells Engineering News Online that the upgrade is in addition to security improvements that have already been sanctioned as part of the group’s three-year capital investment plan and is likely to be packaged into a tender that should be issued in the coming few months.

The utility has already announced that it plans to invest R6.7-billion over the coming three years, primarily to improve network stability, roll out smart meters and electrify areas that remain unconnected. But security improvements have also been included in that budget, as well as in the operational budget.

But additional safeguards are now being considered, including further access-control thresholds and systems, as well as possibly controlling access to certain sensitive network areas remotely from a central control room. Extensive camera surveillance is also envisaged, but a roll-out across the entire network of 300 substations and over 20 000 mini-substations will take time to deploy. In the interim, full-time and rotational guarding has been intensified.

“The security upgrade at substations and securing the electricity network across the city will amount to millions of rands annually and includes the cost of replacing vandalised or stolen infrastructure as well as the deployment of security personnel to protect the network,” Pieterse explains.

The new security design is being pursued in parallel to plans to push ahead with the implementation of the controversial shift system, which precipitated the strike and the associated illegal disconnections.

City Power plans to implement the system from November 1 and Pieterse says consultations with staff and unions are under way to fine-tune the design and roll-out of the shift system.

The Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) confirms that it has had two meetings with City Power MD Sicelo Xulu relating to the implementation of the shift system and that discussions are ongoing. The South African Municipal Workers Union did not respond to a request for comment, but it is understood that the union has signed an agreement with City Power.

City Power management maintains that a migration to a shift system remains in long-term interests of the business and its sustainability, arguing that it will reduce overtime expenses and abuses, release resources for the recruitment of additional technical staff and align City Power’s overtime practices with prevailing labour legislation.

City Power has proposed three eight-hour shifts, but Pieterse says it will consider other options should its staff feel there is a solution that will promote a better work/life balance.

But while Imatu acknowledges that changes need to be made, it says its members do not believe the proposed system to be feasible, mainly due to the lack of experienced and skilled staff.

"At this point in time, members are putting forward alternative models which they believe will work. The MD has assured us that he will review these submissions and seriously consider all alternatives," Imatu's Anja Muller-Deibicht reports, adding that Imatu appreciates the approach being taken by Xulu to resolve both the current conflict, as well as future problems that could arise.

Hitherto, fault repair has been conducted on a home-standby-overtime basis, which has meant that normal working hours have constituted only 22% of a working year. As a result, some technicians have benefited substantially from the arrangement and reacted negatively to the prospect of those financial rewards being diminished.

Following the illegal disconnections, over 30 employees were served with and have signed final written warning notices. Fewer than ten employees have elected not to sign and will be subjected to full disciplinary hearings. City Power has about 1 600 employees in total.

In addition, the South African Police Service (SAPS) is continuing with its investigation of the action, which could result in charges being laid in the not too distant future. The nature of theses possible charges could not be established, but both City Power and Cabinet have described the actions of the strikers as acts of sabotage.

In fact, in its September 18 statement, Cabinet not only condemned the “sabotage” of the Johannesburg electricity grid by illegal strikers, but also indicated that transgression should be “dealt with to the full extent of the law”.

Pieterse said he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the SAPS, but that he had been given assurances that the investigations was at an advanced stage.

Pieterse said he didn't believe the utility was vulnerable to a repeat action as November approached, noting that there had been ongoing weekly engagements with organised labour since the signing in May of a local labour forum agreement, which covered 13 issues, including the shift implementation.

“Lessons have been learned [as a result of the illegal strike] and we don’t foresee a repeat of what happened in September,” he concludes.