AS power outages continue following a severe storm last week Broken Hill City Council Mayor Tom Kennedy is pushing for an inquiry into the crisis.
“Transgrid said the second generator was looked at by maintenance last month and required more extensive work than what they thought it would, so they hadn’t got it in a condition to be operable,” he said.
“But I’ve also heard other accounts that it’s been offline since November, December last year. So that’s why it will be very important that there is an inquiry.”
“The infrastructure in Broken Hill isn’t adequate.
“If that line does go down from the grid to Broken Hill, we are in all sorts of trouble.
“They need to make sure that there is adequate backup supply to make sure that Broken Hill, if cut off by the grid, is not put in this situation again.
“The Federal Government needs to acknowledge that this was caused by a tornado and exaggerated by the fact that one of our backup generators has not been maintained.
“We’ll also be pushing to make sure that it is declared a natural disaster so that there can be compensation.”
According to Cr Kennedy, the power system will not be back to full working order until November 6 but “they’re hoping that it will be done a little bit quicker than that”.
In a statement, Essential Energy was implementing “rotational” access to power if demand can’t be met.
“Outages will be required – these will occur overnight to minimise impacts on the community,” the statement said.
Essential Energy staff currently setting up four extra 1750kVa generators in the region to act as back-up for rural communities outside of Broken Hill as repairs to the damaged powerlines continue.
“Materials for replacement towers are enroute to Broken Hill, with a concept design to repair the section of powerline now completed,” a statement said.
NSW Police confirmed in a statement the State Government “immediately activated an emergency response and coordinated assistance under the NSW State Energy and Utility Services Functional Area Supporting Plan (EUSPLAN).”
