Power returns but Broken Hill ‘not out of the woods’
Broken Hill has emerged from darkness with three uninterrupted days of power and the erection of six emergency transmission towers but the government has urged residents to remain cautious.
Broken Hill has emerged from darkness with three uninterrupted days of power and the erection of seven emergency transmission towers, but the government warned the far west NSW town was “not out of the woods yet”.
Severe weather knocked down seven transmission towers on October 17, leaving the town in darkness for days and suffering frequent outages, as the government, Transgrid and local network Essential Energy scrambled to enact contingency plans.
In Broken Hill on Monday, NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe welcomed the developments, saying that (at the time of publication) all the town’s homes and businesses had power.
“Transgrid has now erected seven temporary transmission towers, the large solar battery is charging each day and discharging energy to customers in the evening peak,” she said, confirming there had been no outages across the town for the past three days and the backup generator was operating.
But Ms Sharpe said Broken Hill was “not out of the woods yet”, urging residents to remain conscious of their power usage, particularly during the evening peak.
“It’s very important … turn off the appliances that you’re not using and turn off the lights, all of that helps,” she said.
“And it means that we don’t have any load shedding.”
Ms Sharpe spruiked the government’s support for the area – which the state Coalition said came too late – which includes thousands of food hampers, tens of thousands of dollars in fuel and food vouchers, and how it had engaged the federal government about additional support.
“We have approached (the federal government) and are talking to them about additional support. All of the federal disaster relief options are on the table,” the minister said, adding that she would meet with mining companies on Tuesday as staff were furloughed amid the area’s power issues.
The nearby Silverton Wind Farm and Broken Hill Solar have been unable to help ease the town’s energy crisis, with neither connected to the grid and the latter privately owned and in the midst of negotiating a commercial agreement with Transgrid.
The October 17 weather and ensuing damage meant a total of 20,000 people across Broken Hill – a town of 17,000 – Wilcannia, White Cliffs, Menindee and other small towns were plunged into darkness, relying on dodgy generators and intermittent power for days.
After the weather damage, the town had been relying on a single backup diesel generator, which itself then overheated and shut down, leaving some residents without power for a further 36 hours.
Power was intermittent in the days after, with small generators 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 backup generators from being overloaded.
Essential Energy had also urged residents to turn off their solar panels out of fear it could disrupt the limited energy supply to the town, as Transgrid worked to repair a 3.5km section of damaged transmission lines.
Premier Chris Minns, who visited Broken Hill last week, blamed the previous Coalition government, saying the crisis was a result of its 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.
More Coverage
Migrant changed women’s medicine across globe
Henry Burger’s father was a noted research scientist, so once at school Henry began “pottering about with test tubes”.
‘Model is broken’: off-shore wind’s towering hype faces reality check
Offshore turbines are sold as a way to bypass hurdles for renewables — but they are far from a perfect solution.