Cape Town – According to the City of Cape Town, its road network’s nearly 75% of signalized intersections are outfitted with UPS systems, but they run out of time to recharge when Eskom implements Stage 4 load shedding or higher.
Over the years, the City’s urban mobility directorate has made significant investments in the acquisition and installation of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems at signalized intersections on the road network in order to protect road users as much as possible from the impact of load shedding.
A total of 1 228 of the City’s 1 652 traffic signals are outfitted with UPSs, which are charged from mains power and then power the signal when load shedding is used.
This means that roughly 75% of signalized junctions throughout the city, regardless of whether they are served by the City or Eskom, can continue to operate during load shedding up to Stage 3.
It assures traffic flows, reduces congestion, and helps prevent road users from making unnecessary stops near crime hotspots.
The directorate is responsible for the regular maintenance and replacement of existing UPSs due to unit age, failures, vandalism, and theft.
Rob Quintas, City Mayco member for urban mobility, stated that in the previous month, they had replaced and repaired units at 120 signalized crossings.
“Unfortunately, when Eskom executes Stage 4 or higher load shedding, the UPS batteries do not have enough time to recharge.” This signifies that the batteries do not have enough stored power to keep the traffic lights operational during the next power loss.
“We are busy upgrading our UPS systems with lithium battery technology to decrease the time they need to recharge, but an upgrade of all of the intersections across the road network is very expensive and will take a number of years to implement,” Quintas said.
“The City tries its utmost to limit the impact of load-shedding as far as it is within our control. Continuous interruptions in power supply shorten the lifespan of our infrastructure, and more importantly, it has a severe impact on residents’ commuting time.
“This is exacerbated by the theft and vandalism of the UPS systems by criminals who have no regard for their communities. To counter this phenomenon, we are now testing a pilot initiative where we bury these systems and our traffic signal equipment in underground safety chambers, as opposed to above ground where the equipment is an easy target.”
Quintas acknowledges that “it sounds like something from a sci-fi movie” but says that this is how far they now have to go to protect City infrastructure.
“I am pleading with residents to report incidents of vandalism and theft to the SAPS, or to our Transport Information Centre. Vandalism is not a victimless crime.
“Defective and damaged traffic signals add to the risk of collisions, potentially life-threatening delays for emergency vehicles and contribute to the frustrations experienced by commuters in grid-lock traffic,” Quintas said.
Road users are reminded to treat intersections as four-way stops when the signals are out, and to also report continuous outages to the City’s Transport Information Centre so that they can repair these as soon as possible.
Residents can contact the TIC on 0800 65 64 63; the TIC is available 24/7 for all transport-related enquiries and incident reporting.
