NSW: Power failure throws Sydney CBD into chaos
30 Mar 2009 11:04 PM
SYDNEY, March 30 AAP - Sydney's CBD was thrown into chaos when a massive peak-hour power outage forced the closure of major road links, blacked out traffic lights, and left dozens of people stranded in lifts.
The problem started about 4.40pm (AEDT) on Monday when one of four power cables that supply two major sub stations in central Sydney failed.
About 70,000 homes and businesses, mostly in the city's north and surrounding suburbs were affected, plus inner eastern suburbs including Paddington, Rose Bay and Darlinghurst.
Some 100 sets of traffic lights were blacked out, with police directing traffic at 40 of them.
"One of the 132,000 volt cables experienced a high energy fault and I'm advised the other ... cables went down as part of the planned fail-safe mechanisms which are built into the system," NSW Emergency Services Minister Steve Warne told journalists on Monday night.
Power was restored within two hours, but not before the Roads and Traffic (RTA) was forced to close two of the busiest roads out of the city - the Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Distributor - around 5.45pm (AEDT).
They were re-opened about an hour later, when power was restored.
Mr Warne said the power outage was "highly unusual" and praised the state government's response to the incident.
"We had a plan that swung into operation immediately involving the police, the RTA, the fire brigade and emergency services, and that emergency services plan worked well in a very difficult situation," he said.
The situation did not call for the use of the city's loud speaker system to inform workers and shoppers what was happening, he said.
"A decision was made not to use the loud speakers which are around the CBD as it was felt they were not appropriate for this situation as the train system was still working," he said.
"They are designed for other events including terrorist events."
At about 5.20pm (AEDT), however, SMS messages were issued to 2,462 people in the CBD, mostly building wardens, advising them of the situation.
Mr Warne said he would await EnergyAustralia's explanation for why the fault occurred.
"We need to be very clear the reasons why the other cables went out as well was part of a fail-safe mechanism," he said.
"If we don't have these fail-safe mechanisms in the system we can experience a cascading power failure which Auckland saw which lasted for many weeks and months after an initial fault."
He denied the problem occurred because of ageing infrastructure.
"It's not an issue. I've asked the question to Energy Australia this evening. They have advised me these cables are not due to be replaced for another five to ten years."
EnergyAustralia apologised for the disruption, saying the four cables had automatically shut down as a precaution when a fault occurred in one of them.
"This was a highly unusual fault because it affected both our normal supply as well as the backup," EnergyAsutralia said in a statement.
"Crews were immediately sent to three key locations at Surry Hills, the city's north and Lane Cove - to begin systematically analysing the network to isolate the location and nature of the fault.
"Before any cables were reconnected we needed to be certain it was safe to do so. Safety is, of course, the main priority when dealing with any problem on the electricity network."
It said power was restored via three of the cables once it was determined the fault had occurred in only one.
"Power was restored at 6.23pm to parts of Surry Hills, and 12 minutes later, at 6.35pm, power was restored to all areas.
"Now that we have identified which cable has the problem we will investigate the exact cause and location of the fault.
"EnergyAustralia again apologises to everyone affected by the inconvenience of this most unusual interruption and thanks the community for their patience and understanding."
