After experiencing regular power outages for a number of days last week, homeowners at Osona Village just outside Okahandja have been assured the cause of the problem has been identified and that the situation is being closely monitored.

In a letter seen by this publication, Osona Property Management Company (OPMC) CEO, Alex Goethe, said engineers are working on additional infrastructure to be installed to enable OPMC to better isolate and manage power related problems in the future.

“We are aware of the inconveniences, frustration and anger experienced by our residents and sincerely apologise for this unwanted and unfortunate situation,” said Goethe.

Osona residents last week complained about the long and persistent power interruptions, saying their home lives were made unbearable at times as they were forced to find means of surviving without electricity.

The CEO noted the growth of Osona Village and the resulting increase in electricity demand necessitated an upgrade of the power supply from NamPower to Osona. 

“After the successful upgrade of the substation, we immediately experienced power failures during the peak demand time around 19h00 in the evenings. NamPower and OPMC’s service providers immediately deployed resources to attend to the situation with the aim of restoring power,” he explained. 

Goethe explained that at first it was thought the new settings at the substation were unusually sensitive, resulting in the regular power failures. According to him, technical teams proceeded to investigate possible hardware or installation errors that could trigger the failures, but could not identify any. 

On Thursday night, the team identified an unexpected internal overload on what is termed “the red phase”, which was addressed and power was restored late in the evening. No further power failures have been experienced since and OPMC is confident the cause of the power failures has been identified and resolved.