By Surihe Gaomas WINDHOEK Residents in several suburbs of the capital experienced a sudden power outage late on Monday afternoon, which lasted a couple of hours. According to a media release by the City of Windhoek, the electricity blackout, which lasted close on two hours, struck at about 17h30 due to a fault located six kilometres from Van Eck Power Station on the Van Eck-Lafrenz/Goreangab line, resulting in a trip at the Van Eck Busbar2. “The 66ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ kV line-breaker at Van Eck malfunctioned and caused the 66ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ kV breaker stream-up at Van Eck to trip, resulting in a large area being affected,” reads the media release issued by the manager of corporate communications, Ndangi Katoma, on Tuesday. It was subsequently reported that the City of Windhoek lost three of its four 66ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ kV feeders to Windhoek and, as a result, seven of the ten load centres were affected due to Monday’s abrupt power outage. Several suburbs in the capital, namely Windhoek Central, Southern Industrial Area, Windhoek West, the southern part of the CBD, Ausspannplatz area, Suiderhof, Klein Windhoek, Avis, Namibia Dairies, Maerua Mall, Hochlandpark and Dorado Park, were affected. Other affected areas were the Goreangab Reclamation Plant and Otjomuise Water Care Works and customers along Daan Viljoen 11ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ kV OHL, Goreangab area, Wanaheda, parts of Katutura, Okuryangava, Gammams Sewerage Works, Ramatex, Khomasdal, Katutura Hospital and Lafrenz Township. In the Kupferberg area, residents in Pionierspark, Cimbebasia, Prosperita and the Country Club were also affected, as well as Olympia, Kleine Kuppe, Auasblick and Luiperdsvlei. Katoma said the power was, however, completely restored by 19h26 the same day. “NamPower have already repaired the faulty line-breaker at Van Eck, and officials of the City’s Electrical Department are currently busy replacing two faulty insulators on the Van Eck-Goreangab 66ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ kV overhead line,” explained Katoma. Monday’s power outage brought about fears of a blackout scenario similar to that recently experienced in South Africa’s Western Cape Province due to problems at Eskom. However, NamPower’s manager of marketing and corporate communications, John Kaimu, reassured New Era that Monday afternoon’s power fault had nothing to do with Eskom. It was merely a local fault. “We are very stable now, and they (South Africa) are only having a few minor problems with that partkicular issue at the moment. We presently have sufficient power supply,” explained Kaimu.