By Katherine Wilkinson

Several key developments planned for the Knysna area face delay due to a shortage of electricity supply to the Garden Route town.

The Knysna municipality has held a number of meetings to discuss its development plans for the town because Eskom‘s failure to supply enough electricity to the national grid means there might not be enough power to supply all the developments that have been approved.

Already approved and planned developments would have to be dealt with according to priority and transfer of houses limited until enough power was provided, officials said on Monday.

Among the developments affected is Simola Golf Estate‘s Knysna Zebra Mara Phase 1, construction of which was due to begin in May.

Town planner Ed Hill said a service agreement with the council would limit the number of erven that could be transferred before Eskom‘s power supply had been increased. The development has 33 homes.

No one from the Knysna Zebra Mara development was prepared to comment on how this might affect the development until further information was forthcoming from the municipality and Eskom.

Knysna electro-technical engineer Len Richardson said the town had applied to Eskom for more electricity, but had only been told in January that the power supplier would be unable to increase electricity supply and that it would withhold a response or quotation for increased demand until July.

He said a new intake sub-station from Eskom, near Green Pastures/Knysna Zebra Mara, had been ordered in about 2004 and all provisions had been made for it, including securing the land and constructing the sub-station building.

In addition, the electro-technical engineering department has on order a further three transformers in the Knysna area (and one for Sedgefield) to feed into the network.

He said it was understood that the Eastford intake sub-station and the Salt River transformer would be in place in time to provide the electricity needed for the development.

“It was only in January this year, after all approvals had been given, that Eskom indicated that it was unable to increase its electricity supply to the municipality, after previously giving every indication of being in a position to do so,” Hill said.

He said more recent development applications all contained a specific condition in regard to when the houses could be transferred given the power supply problems.

Municipal finance director Grant Easton said strategic meetings to discuss the development issue had taken place, while municipal manager Johnny Douglas said completing proposals were being completed following the meeting.

He said the council was also awaiting input from the developers‘ forum steering committee.

Source: The Herald