The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) has warned of delays in testing and the issuing of customer test certificates after electrical cable theft in the Pretoria area disrupted testing conditions in its laboratories.
The cable theft in the Groenkloof area of Pretoria, in May, caused a power surge, negatively affecting the SABS' Building Management System (BMS). This, in turn, resulted in a disruption to the supply of testing conditions, namely temperature and humidity, from the central plant room to the laboratories.
"While the repairs to the BMS have been prioritised, the aged system has not been able to stabilise the environmental conditions required by the SABS laboratories," the standards authority said in a release issued on Monday.
It noted that the BMS control panel was still unable to fully monitor and control the hot and cold water system, which provides the stable testing conditions to the laboratories on the SABS' 21 ha campus.
"The engineering team has recommended that the existing boilers operate below the required capacity, at 80 °C, to prevent any further disruptions to operations.
"This decision has slowed the SABS’ ability to fully restore operational testing requirements. While repairs are ongoing, the bureau is currently investigating interim localised or standalone solutions for each laboratory," it added.