SA in the dark

[Joff]

Does no one else remember when large parts of Sydney lost power for 4 days a decade or so ago??

You might think it's the Pollies that stuff these things up but really, mother nature is still in charge 

[Ben.Archer]

Does no one else remember when large parts of Sydney lost power for 4 days a decade or so ago??

A decade ago?  Here on the northern beaches we were without power for nearly a week a the year before last.  Far too many trees over powerlines, a good gust of wind and the trees all fall taking out kilometres of power lines, snapping power poles and generally making a mess.  Just the price we pay for wanting to live on the edge of the bush.

[edz]

Wasnt  large parts of Victoria out of power for close to three months many many years ago .. And they bought in huge portable generators to run basic services .

[Bird]

It was a good move to demolish the power station (showed it on tele this morning being blown up) and go to wind farms....

Must admit I'm a fan of wind farms, but didn't realize this could happen

[Pete79]

It was a good move to demolish the power station (showed it on tele this morning being blown up) and go to wind farms....

Must admit I'm a fan of wind farms, but didn't realize this could happen

What, lightening strike a power station and trip the mains???

[Bird]

What, lightening strike a power station and trip the mains???

Touch quicker to fix than rebuilding a flattened powerstation
4yrs of bullShit paperwork before they start designing it

[Pete79]

One should never let the truth get in the way of a good rant......

Straight from the mouth of the minister for coal mining and reef destruction;

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: OK. Let's get down to the cause of it. Last night you said there were questions raised from the increasing amount of renewables in South Australia, but then went on to say this was entirely a weather event. So if it was a weather event, what are the questions, then, around renewables?

JOSH FRYDENBERG: Well, let's put it in context here. There was a one-in-a-50-year weather event in South Australia and there was a lightning strike at a power plant. There was also transmission towers that were blown over.

This led to an electricity surge across the interconnectors and as a safety valve, it turns itself off in that event. So that is why we had the situation that we did.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: And it wouldn't have mattered what the electricity mix was, would it?

JOSH FRYDENBERG: Well, there are a couple of questions there. The head of the AEMO tells me that, when you lose such a substantial amount of power, it doesn't matter how that power is generated: that is what will occur. The electricity grid will go down.

Full interview transcript

[Bird]

Needs a bit of wind to generate enough

Where does South Australia’s power come from?

During the 2015 financial year, gas accounted for 37 per cent of the electricity, wind 34 per cent, coal 23 per cent, and solar 7 per cent. Additionally, SA imported around 10 per cent of its total from Victoria via the interconnector to meet demand when there was not enough capacity locally.

With the closure of Alinta’s Northern power station at Port Augusta occurring on May 9 this year, coal is now out of the equation. At 1pm yesterday, SA was generating 1730 MW of electricity —
of that 71 per cent wind, 24 per cent gas, and 5 per cent solar.

[MattNQ]

I think this is what cause the outage...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b--kczcf4AI

[Symon]

I think it has more to do with the interconnector only being rated for about 25% of the state peak consumption.

During high winds the wind turbines shut down otherwise they will be damaged, storms generally don't allow in much sunlight so solar isn't much use.  When you add in a few 132kV towers being blown over you then need to rely on the interconnector from Victoria, but if you overload it, it will trip off.

The amount of politics that has gotten involved with our national electricity market over the last few decades has re-enforced my desire to always have a generator fuelled up and ready to go at my house. 

[4runnernomore]

Down in Adelaide around Semphore at the moment visiting my Mum and Stepdad.

stepdad is on oxygen so last night was a bit of an issue for us. We lost power around 430 and it didn't come back on to pill 1045 last night.

He had O2 cylinders  to use but was nearing the end of them. Only had one full one and a 1/4 on the other. Normally has 4, due for a refill in two weeks. If the power was out all night we would have had to go to hospital so he could be hooked up to oxygen. Luckily next door neighbour is an ambo and mangled to procure an emergency bottle just in case.

Investing scenario in Adelaide. Alot of people in the same situation with having to use oxygen. We couldn't get onto the provider yesterday to obtain more, presuming their phone was off line  because of the power outage. Land lines went down and triple 000 network was offline.

Some Hospitals had to close and relocate their patients, also heard on the news this morning that in some hospitals they did not have enough power to go round with their emergency generators, wings were shut patients relocated and some patients with respitary illness were being ventilated by hands til mains power came back online.  Unbelievable.

My mobile ran out of power around 900 last night and because I am visiting didn't have a car charger with me. Stepdads mobile was charged but his provider went off line for a while. If we had an emergency we would have been really up the creek.

SA government have a lot of questions to answer.

[Bird]

The amount of politics that has gotten involved with our national electricity market over the last few decades has re-enforced my desire to always have a generator fuelled up and ready to go at my house. 

agree...

[mrdenn1s]

I think it has more to do with the interconnector only being rated for about 25% of the state peak consumption.

During high winds the wind turbines shut down otherwise they will be damaged, storms generally don't allow in much sunlight so solar isn't much use.  When you add in a few 132kV towers being blown over you then need to rely on the interconnector from Victoria, but if you overload it, it will trip off.

The amount of politics that has gotten involved with our national electricity market over the last few decades has re-enforced my desire to always have a generator fuelled up and ready to go at my house. 

At the time it tripped, SA was importing 500MW via the Heywood interconnector. that's not to say SA couldn't generate that 500MW, but the market determined that it was cheaper to import at that point in time. 500MW is maybe three medium sized wind farms blowing at full capacity (350MW @ 45% capacity factor). Not a massive amount of power in the scheme of things.

[Airport-Andy]

power doesnt just jump from the Powerstation to your house! it uses these
and this ones a bit tired and had a lie down

[Cruiser 105Tvan]

Now you know why the copper phone system has been without question the saviour of Emergency situations.
Runs on power at/from the exchange and is always there, unless the phone line has been physically damaged.
Try that with your new fibre NBN phone system.

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF NBN PHONES NOT WORKING.

And the people are just letting them do it.

[Bird]

Now you know why the copper phone system has been without question the saviour of Emergency situations.
Runs on power at/from the exchange and is always there, unless the phone line has been physically damaged.
Try that with your new fibre NBN phone system.

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF NBN PHONES NOT WORKING.

And the people are just letting them do it.

we have IP phones at work - and there was an outage for 18hours other day... no phones, and no computers, as they all run through the same cabling

But what choice do you have against the Gov Co... ****in donuts.

[prodigyrf]

Now you know why the copper phone system has been without question the saviour of Emergency situations.
Runs on power at/from the exchange and is always there, unless the phone line has been physically damaged.
Try that with your new fibre NBN phone system.

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF NBN PHONES NOT WORKING.

Mobiles everywhere and if you want a permanent fibre VOIP phone you opt for a battery backup not that many do as they give you the first battery free and then you have to replace them at your own expense every couple of years.

[Joff]

Now you know why the copper phone system has been without question the saviour of Emergency situations.
Runs on power at/from the exchange and is always there, unless the phone line has been physically damaged.
Try that with your new fibre NBN phone system.

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF NBN PHONES NOT WORKING.

And the people are just letting them do it.

copper won't be any good either coz the sky is falling

[Symon]

At the time it tripped, SA was importing 500MW via the Heywood interconnector. that's not to say SA couldn't generate that 500MW, but the market determined that it was cheaper to import at that point in time. 500MW is maybe three medium sized wind farms blowing at full capacity (350MW @ 45% capacity factor). Not a massive amount of power in the scheme of things.

Yes true, but the news reports stated that the interconnector did trip on overload.  I'm not familiar with the SA grid but seeing 132kV lines bent over makes me think that sections of the grid would have tripped off causing voltage surges and/or frequency fluctuations which may have tripped off the local generation.  In which case the interconnector is driven into overload.  I noticed the gas turbines were producing almost 1GW earlier, it will be costing a packet.

Lots of 'mays' in there I know, it will be interesting reading the report when it comes out.

[chillipepperz]

To top it all off, the organisation that I run is currently in the "market" to procure a very, very large quantity of black and green power for distribution statewide...not a good time to be looking for favorable pricing! We shall hold on a little longer...

Cheers!
Andrew

[4runnernomore]

Wind is picking up again.

[Ozsnowman]

Wasnt  large parts of Victoria out of power for close to three months many many years ago .. And they bought in huge portable generators to run basic services .

Big chunks of Tassie were running on diesel gennies earlier this year because the hydro was running out

[Discoduck]

A few issues for the morons that run this state
1. Why is the system so poorly designed that the whole state goes down from an event that could happen anytime - weather, sabotage, terrorism etc. If the entire state can be crippled from losing a tower that's a BAD design, (Ok i know they lost over 20 towers in a row, but only 1 is need to fall to bring the lines down - maybe used Chinese steel  )
2. SA has the highest electricity charges in Aust, with obviously the weakest system
3. The moron Premier told us on ABC radio last night to keep in touch through social media on your phone to know the status of things. Brilliant as the towers only have around 4 hours battery supply so lots Optus and Vodaphone were gone by 8-9pm.
4. Some bloke phoned in to ABC radio and said he got trapped in city building as lifts of course were out and discovered the fire escape doors sealed when the power went off - that's really effing brilliant.
5. As for blaming a supposedly 1 in 50yr weather event, that's a pisspoor excuse. A system as critical as the entire state's network should be far better designed. Weather like this has happened far more often than 1 in 50.
DD

[speewa158]

Still haven't had any offers from SA yet but there is still time  .
                                    4 Sale
                                    Honda  Gen set
                                    Best Offer considered
                                                                             

[edz]

Another good reason to be self sufficient and off grid where practical.
With waves, wind, Coal / rubbish / Gas and solar  No reason you should ever run short of power anywhere .. Except for bad management of resources and application ..