Shining a light on the NT’s darkest day as power went out in 2014

DARWIN will wake as normal this morning, as inquiries begin into the widespread power failure that plunged the Top End into darkness and brought the entire city to a standstill

A 2014 blackout in the Parap area forced Parap Fine Foods to supply shoppers such as Leonore Morton with torches to do their shopping.

DARWIN will wake as normal this morning, as inquiries begin into the widespread power failure that plunged the Top End into darkness and brought the entire city to a standstill.

Authorities know what went wrong – a simple circuit-breaker failed during routine maintenance, sending the entire power network into a protective shutdown and leaving 68,000 homes and businesses without power for up to 12 hours.

Chief Minister Adam Giles said the extent of the outage was “unacceptable” and he has ordered reviews that will include how a similar incident could be less disruptive.

In an instant, about 1.20am, the grid that distributes electricity to the entire Darwin region – stretching south as far as Katherine – was shut down.

The electrical shock caused the evacuation of hotels, the closure of schools and the cancellation of city bus services.

Airconditioners and street lights failed in the middle of the night. Alarm clocks failed to ring. Food spoiled as refrigerators and freezers thawed.

Traffic lights across Darwin and Palmerston were black and key intersections were patrolled by police, including trainee officers from the police academy.

Treasurer Dave Tollner was woken about 4am with news of the outage. By 6.30am the Chief Minister had corralled the ministers and department heads responsible for essential services, police, transport and education.

By 7am the NT Government had advised students and non-essential public servants to stay at home.

Manuel Kotis from Fannie Bay IGA tries his best to save food in his freezers with big peices of foam - Power has been lost in Darwin, all the way down to Katherine in what Power and Water are calling a short fuse.

Officials worked into the afternoon to restore service.

The shutdown effectively brought the gears of Darwin’s regional economy, estimated to be worth about $27 million a day, to a grinding halt.

At Royal Darwin Hospital, backup generators kept essential equipment operating. Patients requiring in-home life support systems and oxygen were contacted and arrangements made.

Darwin Airport and the port were able to operate as normal.

Many phone customers reported patchy service – Telstra said it had base stations knocked out and its remaining network was congested.

Egg incubators at Crocodylus Park were offline in the morning, but power was restored before any baby crocs were harmed.

By late morning, some parts of Palmerston, the northern suburbs and the rural area had their power restored. Most of the Darwin CBD was back online about 2pm.

Mr Giles has ordered three reviews into the incident. Treasurer Dave Tollner will conduct an initial review, which will take about 24 hours, designed to bring further clarity to the chain of events.

Sgt Ronald Mummery directs traffic at the Mitchell and Knuckey st intersection after an explosion in the Harvey st sub station created an almost city wide blackout.

Another review, also overseen by Mr Tollner, will look at whether the protective system in place could have been less disruptive.

The third review, which Mr Giles will co-ordinate, will assess the emergency response that was put in place.

“From the outset I believe (the response) went quite well, we’re not aware of any accidents that occurred, we’re not aware of any incidents that occurred with students and we’re quite happy with the way the emergency services response occurred,” Mr Giles said.

Recriminations yesterday focused on the NT Government’s plan to break up Power and Water Corporation and the level of maintenance performed on the power network.

Mr Giles said the breakup plan, which is designed to attract competition to the power market, would ultimately help to prevent such incidents.

“If you can imagine a situation where we’ve got more than one company generating power … we wouldn’t be in this situation, we wouldn’t still be, 12 hours later, trying to get the power back up and running again.”

The problem occurred during regular maintenance of the Hudson Creek zone substation. Three “poles”, which form part of a circuit-breaker, did not operate correctly after being replaced. That cut energy supply from the Channel Island Power Station.

“There was a chain of events that occurred after that circuit-breaker failure, that’s why we believe there’s a problem with the system that was designed around 2010,” Mr Giles said.

It is understood the circuit-breaker has been maintained regularly every six months.

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Opposition Leader Delia Lawrie yesterday said the Government should abandon plans to separate the utilities provider and instead focus on its reliability.

“Surely this catastrophic blackout shows there are serious problems with the network and generation which need to be dealt with as a priority. This can’t occur if PowerWater is being split up,” she said.

Power customers affected by more than 12 hours are able to claim $80 compensation.

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Originally published as Shining a light on the NT’s darkest day as power went out in 2014