Cape Town International Airport (CPT) experienced power interruptions last week, the most significant ones occurring on March 3 and March 5.

The Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said the outage was caused by "an unplanned electricity supply disruption”, with repairs carried out on March 6.

Acsa said: "Airport operations continued as usual, thanks to the activation of contingency measures. Some services, including heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, and retail operations, were limited, but essential services to facilitate passenger movement remained unaffected. Minimal delays were experienced."

However, a video on social media showed that lights and baggage carousels were also affected, with airport staff having to locate passengers and hand them their luggage manually.

Addressing concerns regarding baggage handling, Acsa stated that while baggage handling is a critical service, contingency plans prioritise passenger safety, security and overall terminal operations during power outages. 

“Manual baggage handling was implemented as a temporary solution to ensure minimal disruption to passengers. While this is not the standard operation, it allowed us to continue providing essential services without compromising the safety or comfort of our passengers,” Acsa said.

"The airport’s power supply is divided into essential and non-essential loads. While we have more than 20 back-up generators, including mobile units and UPS systems, only essential loads are serviced during outages. The focus is on maintaining supply to regulated systems that are critical for operations, while other non-essential services may experience temporary disruptions."

To prevent a similar situation in the future, Acsa has taken steps to enhance the resilience of its power infrastructure.

"While external power disruptions are beyond our control, we have strengthened our back-up power systems to enhance resilience. The airfield power supply has six levels of redundancy, while landside operations have two levels, which are generally sufficient for critical installations.

“In response to recent incidents, we’ve improved the reliability of our power infrastructure, secured two additional generators, and initiated an upgrade of landside installations to three levels of redundancy. This design principle will be incorporated into upcoming major infrastructure projects."

Acsa said the two additional generators have been placed at the fuel farm and have been tested and are fully operational. 

“These generators ensure continued operation of critical infrastructure, particularly the fuel depot, during power disruptions. Our short-term strategy focuses on increasing redundancy in critical areas on the landside to ensure a three-level redundancy, meaning we are improving redundancy with an additional generator fully connected at the terminal, standing by for emergency use. This will further ensure business continuity during power disruptions.

“In the long term, we plan to upgrade and expand the current infrastructure by replacing existing generators and increasing overall redundancy, guaranteeing a more resilient power supply for critical services across the airport,” Acsa concluded.