Downed power lines trap residents in five streets in Sydney’s west
A 132,000 volt transmission cable that forms part of NSW’s gold plated electricity grid came crashing down onto houses, gardens and a child’s trampoline today. SEE THE PHOTOS.
NSW
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A 132,000 volt transmission cable that forms part of NSW’s gold plated electricity grid came crashing down onto houses, gardens and a child’s trampoline today.
Residents in Plumpton in Sydney’s west were woken by a loud bang as a 500 metre length of high voltage cable landed across 12 homes, gardens, carports and a reserve.
“Oh my God, thank goodness nobody was injured,” said Russ Gazitepe, 70, who had the high power transmission line draped over the carport of his home in Polonia Avenue.
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Mr Gazitepe said at first he and wife Faize, 65, thought the bang was a car accident.
“We didn’t know what happened and then 10 minutes later the fire brigade were knocking on the door telling us to stay inside.
“It’s a holiday so we were in bed. Normally we are up and right there looking after the plants in the driveway,” he said.
“It’s very scary to have a 100,000 volt live cable sitting on top of your car port.”
Neighbour Julie looked out to see the cable hanging on the trampoline used by her children Zoe, 10, and Daniel 12.
“I think it is a blessing from God that it happened when it did and no one was playing outside,” she said.
Electricity companies have spent billions gold plating the grid because the amount they can charge consumers is based on the value of the network. Electricity bills have soared as a result.
Rod Campbell, Research Director at the Australia Institute, said: “While we have seen gold plating of the existing network we have not seen investment go into ensuring its reliability in the longer term.”
More than 10,000 homes lost power as lightning strikes from Sunday night’s storms hit power poles and transformers and brought down the high voltage transmission line in Plumpton. By morning all but 480 had their power restored.
Hours later safety experts were trying to work out what had caused the transmission line, which carries a higher voltage than a typical residential line, to break hours after the storm had finished.
Endeavour Energy Regional Manager Drew Ferguson said the line broke at 6am following an intense lightning storm and strong winds in the area during the night. The last time a similar line broke was 25 years ago.
“We’ve set-up a team to investigate the reason why the line failed. It’s highly unusual for a transmission line to fail and often extreme weather events can be a contributing factor,” said Mr Ferguson.
Residents in surrounding streets including Aquilina Drive, Beverly Place, Tilden Place and Carroll Crescent were told to stay in their homes while emergency service workers de-energised and earthed the fallen line.
Energy workers also joined with Roads and Maritime Services to re-tension the line across the M7 near Woodstock Road.
Fire and Rescue NSW Acting Superintendent Bruce Fitzpatrick said there were reports of 500 metres of wires down across backyards and houses.
He said that one house suffered a “solar panel roof fire” due to the incident.
Residents were reminded to stay away from fallen power cables.
Earlier this month respected pharmacist Hossam Ibrahim, 38, was electrocuted in front of his wife and three children after storms brought down residential power lines at his Punchbowl home.
Energy expert Bruce Mountain, director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, said spending on Australia’s electricity infrastructure meant it was “the best in the developed world”.
“However it is still susceptible to extremes of weather including storms, tornadoes and lightning strikes,” he said.