- Power outages affect businesses
- Business owners count losses
- Power has since been restored to the affected areas
Following three days of power outages in Rundu last week, business owners count their losses. A burnt-out transformer compartment in the Rundu substation caused three days of power outages affecting households and businesses in the area. The state-owned power utility, NamPower, confirmed the incident stating that the technical issue had been resolved, restoring power to the affected areas/
Businesswoman Elizabeth Hilger lost revenue from several booking cancellations at Tambuti Lodge. “Although we used generators as alternatives, most of our food was spoiled because the generators could not supply power to the fridges. When tourists passed by the business, it was very embarrassing to inform them that we can’t serve them because there was no electricity; yet we expect investors to visit our town,” she lamented.
“We had to suspend all our practical lessons because everything was affected. We were also forced to purchase solar panels to keep some of the systems running, which was totally out of our budget,” Fernando John, owner of a vocational training institution, said.
NamPower Area Manager for the Northern regions, Petrus Immanuel, confirmed the incident and explained that the replacement part was installed following the determination of the source of the technical fault. He apologised for any inconvenience caused by the outages and assured of NamPowers commitment to ensuring reliable supply for consumers.