Electricity back after storm damage left Broken Hill without reliable power from October 17
Powerless for more than a week, residents of the far-west NSW city of Broken Hill finally have the lights back on after struggling to survive with constant electricity outages since October 17.
NSW
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The regional city of Broken Hill has come out of the darkness after ten days struggling to survive with constant electricity outages.
Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said power has been restored for three straight nights following 10 days of outages.
“The good news is that all homes and businesses across the far west have power, it’s the third straight night there have been no blackouts,” she told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Monday morning.
“Essentially all of the generators have been put in place and the large solar battery is now plugged in to support the peak, and that means power is on and people are getting back about their business.”
This was also confirmed by a spokesperson from Essential Energy, highlighting that the power was brought back into Broken Hill: “We can confirm the power is on via the Transgrid generator to Broken Hill.”
It’s hoped it’s the final curtain on a scene impossible to imagine in Sydney or bigger towns like Dubbo or Bathurst: the 17,000-strong city of Broken Hill had had hardly any power since October 17, after a severe storm knocked over seven transmission lines leading into town.
The damaged towers meant a total of 20,000 people across Broken Hill, Wilcannia, White Cliffs, Menindee and other small towns were plunged into darkness – relying on dodgy generators and intermittent power for days.
HSC studies had ground to a halt with the internet cutting out, locals gathered in clubs to cool down in the few remaining rooms with airconditioning, butchers and chemists threw out thousands of dollars worth of meat and medications, as queues for petrol to power personal generators grew to hundreds of metres long.
For Jay Meiers, 63, the power crisis put her in a life-or-death situation, with blackouts causing her oxygen tank to fail, leaving her gasping for air in the middle of the night.
As her blood oxygen levels plummeted to a dangerous level a week ago, she called triple 0. When paramedics finally got there, they told her she was minutes from irreversible brain damage or death.
Today, Ms Meier, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tries not to think about how the blackout nearly killed her. “I don’t really go there. I would be in tears 24/7,” she said.
SUPPLY UNRELIABLE
In the days following the storms, the town was reliant upon a single diesel generator. A week ago that generator overheated and shut down. Some residents did not have power restored until 36 hours later.
When the power did come back on it was intermittent.
Generators were trucked in from across the country, but residents were warned to expect to lose power with little-to-no warning for the foreseeable future, forced off the grid at night as providers tried to protect back-up generators from being overloaded.
Transgrid hinted it could take weeks, if not months, to reconnect the town to mains electricity, apologising “for the disruption”.
Premier Chris Minns, who flew to Broken Hill last Wednesday, blamed the previous Coalition government, saying the crisis was a result of their decision to privatise electricity assets and hand control of the transmission lines to Transgrid.
The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal has now begun an inquiry into Transgrid’s handling of the fiasco.
Residents are frustrated. Sydney is more than 1000km away and people in the neighbouring towns of Menindee and Wilcannia – also experiencing intermittent blackouts – feel forgotten.
HSC students, forced to study in the dark with no access to their online notes, said it was “demoralising”.
“We put in so much effort, for two years straight, and then suddenly there is a possibility I won’t be able to fully put in my most effort,” Willyama High School Year 12 student Grace Molloy said.
The school, one of the only places with electricity, had opened its doors to students after hours. Teachers came in on their days off helping students study. Other students were forced to work at home by candlelight.
For families, simple tasks such as cooking dinner, washing clothes and putting kids to sleep had been nearly impossible.
The Pratt family went 32 hours without power at one point during the crisis. Life in their home with three kids aged under 5 pushed Sarah and Nick close to breaking point.
“You don’t realise how much you rely on electricity just for day-to-day life,” Ms Pratt said. “It was 38C in our children’s bedroom, I had to put them to sleep with a cold cloth on their head to try and keep the temperature down.
“I know that if this happened in Sydney, it wouldn’t have gone on this long. I feel like it’s happened to us because we’re so isolated.”
Businesses in Broken Hill were equally desperate.
Cafe owner Abigail Hughes closed her doors, throwing out thousands of dollars worth of produce after it spoiled.
Ms Hughes says she has lost at least $30,000 in produce and lost income, and described Mr Minns’ promise of $200 for residents and $400 for businesses as “laughable.”
“Four hundred dollars really doesn’t cut it. It wouldn’t even restock my family of five’s fridge these days with the cost of groceries,” she said.
“It’s a beautiful thought but I hope potentially the next round is something a bit more substantial.”
School canteen manager Donna Lee Singleton said if the outage had happened in the city, the army would have been called in five days ago.
She cried as she talked about the thousands of dollars of frozen food she will have to throw away.
“I know that for some of these kids, it’s the only meal they get a day,” she said.
In the town’s mines, with no power to run one of Broken Hill’s main industries, more than 500 miners were stood down indefinitely.
Those employed full-time were instructed to take their annual leave.
“We are haemorrhaging internally,” said Russell Miller, a truck driver for Broken Hill’s Perilya lead and zinc mine.
“No one signs up for this. Not in a first-world country.
“I lived in Africa for 17 years and had more reliable electricity than this,” he said.
“The uncertainty is killing me,” he said.
The CP People’s Chemist in town was forced to throw out $20,000 worth of medication after someone stole the generator keeping the medication fridges running.
Nurses and doctors from Broken Hill Base Hospital, speaking on the condition of anonymity, revealed they had shut down vital CT machines, labs and operating theatres to conserve what little power they do have.
“It’s vital, it’s a main diagnostic tool especially for people having strokes,” a nurse said.
While the hospital has its own generator, sources have told The Saturday Telegraph the supply is not strong enough to keep the facility at full capacity.
“Some areas were in the dark. We took our own torches to work,” a nurse said.
“We are stuck on the wrong side of the Blue Mountains. Does anyone know? Does anyone care?”
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Originally published as Electricity back after storm damage left Broken Hill without reliable power from October 17
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