Qld: Energy minister demands urgent report over power failure

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2004
Qld: Energy minister demands urgent report over power failure

By Johanna Leggatt

BRISBANE, Aug 14 AAP - The Queensland government has ordered an urgent report from
the owners of the national electricity grid after 250,000 homes were left without power
last night.

The National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) confirmed in a release
this morning that equipment failure in the NSW Hunter Valley at 9.42pm (AEST) yesterday
caused blackouts across four states - Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

Queensland fared worse than other states - shedding 500 megawatts compared with 400-450
megawatts in both NSW and Victoria.

Queensland Energy Minister Stephen Robertson held urgent talks with senior executives
from state electricity suppliers Energex, Ergon and Powerlink this morning over the outages
which affected Queensland homes in Logan, Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns and parts of the
Gold Coast.

Due to the failure, the system automatically disconnected a number of load blocks across
the four states to stabilise the system so it did not cascade further.

Angry Queenslanders inundated Energex's hotline last night, with around 180,000 calls logged.

By 11.30pm (AEST) the state's electricity was fully restored.

Mr Roberston told a media conference this morning however that he would be seeking
answers from NEMMCO.

"I want to know that the response by NEMMCO to that failure in NSW provided in Queensland
the most efficient return to full capacity in the shortest possible time," said Mr Robertson.

"I would be expecting some sort of response in the next couple of days."

Mr Robertson was keen to iterate that the failure was not a Queensland problem.

The state government has come under fire in recent weeks after an independent report
declared Queensland's electricity networks to be mired in mismanagement and distribution
problems.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience it caused (Queenslanders), however I'm assured
that what happened last night was not from a lack of generated capacity," said Mr Robertson.

"It was a problem in NSW but because we were importing electricity at the time, we were affected.

"Equipment being equipment, there are some things that are out of our control."

Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said it was simply "more excuses" for the failure
of the Queensland supply network.

"This government has become so reliant on the national grid to make up for its electricity
distribution and generating sector that one failure in NSW puts out 250,000 houses in
Queensland," said Mr Springborg.

"Queenslanders are sick of the excuses from Mr Beattie; if he wants someone to blame
he should look no further than the mirror.

"It's totally inexcusable that when a safety switch goes off in the Hunter Valley,
that that many homes go off in Queensland."

AAP jtl/cjh

KEYWORD: BLACKOUT LEAD

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