Post by Rich80105Post by Gordonhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350308986/live-fallen-transpower-tower-leaves-much-northland-without-electricity
Interesting to know if vandalism or poor upkeep was the cause of the
problem. Not a thing that happens every day.
I agree, Gordon, I cannot recall a high voltage transmission Tower
falling over in the past, but I do know that there were at least in
the past regular assessments of towers, and maintenance as needed.
As Transpower is an State-Owned-Enterprise (SOE) this should not have
changed much since it was formed.
Post by Rich80105Usually with any stoppage there are other transmission paths that
will still deliver electricity as well.
Not to Northland - there never has. Although the outage covers a
large physical area it affects just 100,000 customers. There was
220KV and a 110KV lines available but this provides only partial
redundancy in that the 110KV line cannot supply the whole region. If
I read the news coverage today correctly, it is the 220KV line that
failed and the 110KV line was out under planned maintenance.
Post by Rich80105If supply is interrupted for a long period there may be some liability
on either Transpower,
This is not as straightforward as it seems. The two lines companies
affected are Top Energy and Northpower. Top Energy has commissioned
geothermal generators at their Ngawha site, but apparently the way the
output has been configured to feed the Transpower grid, it cannot be
used in these circumstances. The advertised capability at Ngawha is
to supply a load typical of 35,000 customers (roughly what Top Energy
supplies) so perhaps Top Energy are unable to ensure that if Top
Energy are isolated from the Transpower grid then Ngawha may be loaded
with more than just the Top Energy network.
As a Top Energy customer, I expect that generating capacity it owns
should be usable in the event that Top Energy can no longer access the
Transpower grid.
Post by Rich80105but the system is designed so that power costs
go up with any problem - so those more concerned about profits they
are not likely to be significantly affected.
What twaddle. Every retail supplier to Northland has lost revenue
with this outage, as has Northpower and Top Energy. The failure is
with a monopoly SOE.
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Crash McBash