Hydro Tasmania exceeded safe power transmission levels, Basslink says

BASSLINK sought to restrict Hydro’s electricity exports and enforce a “cooling off” protocol during the period of the carbon tax to ensure the cable was operated safely.

Basslink Cable being fed into Bass Strait

BASSLINK owners sought to restrict Hydro Tasmania’s electricity exports and enforce a “cooling off” protocol during the period of the carbon tax to ensure the undersea cable was operated safely and reliably.

The news comes as Basslink prepares to cut the cable today and enable the cause of the fault to be pinpointed.

After three outages in July 2012, Basslink parent company Cityspring Infrastructure Trust sought to enforce what it called a “dynamic protocol” on the service agreement between it and Hydro, which enable it to transmit at “certain elevated levels”.

But the company said the outages came after Hydro transmitted electricity at levels above these in early July.

Hydro and Cityspring then had a protracted dispute which was ultimately arbitrated by former Chief Justice of the High Court Murray Gleeson in 2014.

Opposition leader Bryan Green told Parliament on Wednesday that there was increasing speculation that the $875m cable had been “fried”.

BASSLINK CABLE OUT UNTIL LATE MAY

Hydro Tasmania built up storages before the start of the carbon tax period from July 1, 2012, and exported up to 97GWh a week, close to Basslink’s capacity, during the two-year period.

The dispute began after Basslink cable suffered three outages on July 1, 2 and 5, 2012, for a total of 6.68 hours.

The operation of the protocol prompted Hydro to seek damages claiming that a restriction to baseline levels between December 2012 and January 2014 cost it the opportunity to export at high prices and capitalise on its renewable status.

In 2014 Mr Gleeson found in favour of Hydro on the protocol dispute, but against Hydro on a number of other issues, resulting in Basslink agreeing to pay Hydro $6 million.

Hydro was approached for comment but was unable to respond.

In the months before the fault on December 20, Hydro was importing close to the maximum capacity of up to 80.23GWh a week through Basslink.

The Basslink repair operation has been unable to find any external indications of a fault.

Basslink chief executive Malcolm Eccles has told the Mercury that he believes the outage is an insurable event.

The cause of the fault is likely to determine the flow of millions of dollars in damages claims, including the unknown cost of ongoing of diesel generation.

The cutting of the Basslink cable will result in disruption to digital services prompting the University of Tasmania to ask staff and students to refrain from using services such as YouTube and Facebook for non-learning, teaching and research activities.

University internet traffic is being transferred to a backup link.