Switching yard failure blamed for north-east NSW blackout

The failure of a transformer at a switching yard at Armidale, in north-eastern New South Wales, is being blamed for a major power failure yesterday afternoon.

Power was cut for one-and-a-half hours affecting consumers from north of Kempsey to Brunswick Heads, and west to Armidale and Tamworth.

People were trapped in darkened shops and supermarkets, bank ATMs went off line and major hospitals had to rely on generators for power.

John Sheather from North Power says his organisation had its hands tied until Transgrid fixed the problem.

"Basically it represtents about 20 per cent of the land mass in New South Wales, it certainly was a significant problem for Transgrid with thier system," he said.

"Our system, even though it operated perfectly we just didn't have any electricity to distribute, so there really was no alternative arrangement that we could bring to play and we had to wait for Transgrid to get their system up and running."

) 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Link to Story:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/nsw/metnsw-20jan2000-6.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 20, 2000

Answers

carl jenkins, i've been noticing that you post a lot of good stuff. thanks. :)

-- boop (leafyspurge@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000.