Thread: Taste of things to come?

Yep I have to agree with you there. And that power plant is suppose to shut down in 2035. Good luck to us then.

I heard on the ABC radio late this afternoon, that power pylon(s) had been felled by the weather.
Don.

Failure of Loy Yang seems to be that the wind blew down the power lines from it. Why did this happen now, not 15 years ago? I don't know, but I can think of some possibilities. These could include poor maintenance on the towers, winds from a different direction, or when the temperature is different (changes the catenary of the wires and hence leverage on the tower), different vegetation, or culture near the power lines affected the wind. Possibly heavier conductors.

Another possibility is that increased use of airconditioners means that even if these lines had been down previously, it did not cause the same issues.

I think you're on to something with the air conditioners. I reckon that with lots more a/c going then more power going through the lines.
More power means more weight. So the more power going through the lines the heavier they get until they fall down being too heavy.

Make sense, right.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Failure of Loy Yang seems to be that the wind blew down the power lines from it. Why did this happen now, not 15 years ago? I don't know, but I can think of some possibilities. These could include poor maintenance on the towers, winds from a different direction, or when the temperature is different (changes the catenary of the wires and hence leverage on the tower), different vegetation, or culture near the power lines affected the wind. Possibly heavier conductors.

Another possibility is that increased use of airconditioners means that even if these lines had been down previously, it did not cause the same issues.

There are conflicting stories of the various causes. But Hazelwood fed into a different line, at least for a few ks.

Originally Posted by ChookD2

I think you're on to something with the air conditioners. I reckon that with lots more a/c going then more power going through the lines.
More power means more weight. So the more power going through the lines the heavier they get until they fall down being too heavy.

Make sense, right.

Nice try Chook.

Jesting aside, you were jesting weren't you?
High winds allow the Cables to swing in the breeze which would put strain on the Insulators which in their turn collapsed.

High winds in '93 here caused bare cables to swing & clash. Burning Crap was apparently falling to ground/undergrowth. which was blamed for the biggest fires in this state. Many died.


Since that time ETSA, (now SA Power Networks) have fitted necessary length Fibre Glass Rods between spans to lock the cables apart so that cannot happen again. It cost Millions/Billions & they also instituted the cutting back of trees & branches to regulated heights & clearances each year.

Thus far, all that generally has decreased any fires. Just need to shoot the Firebugs now, but on Fire Danger Days plainclothes & uniformed POLICE patrol the Hills Roads & check the activities of these nere do wells from a Data Base. That appears to have been successful also, as they have over the years, brought them to book.

There were mothers with kids left in the car out creating fires being quickly jumped upon.


The stupidity is that of creeps lighting fires in their own manor is beyond belief.

Just got a message from Ausnet. Could be days before power is back. Joy.

The lines that went down were the main 500KV feed to the Portland Smelter, bugger all residential and commercial load on them. This line is fed straight from Loy Yang and the fault current tripped the main yard. Load shedding then commenced which put around 350,000 customers off. The other 150,000 off are due to the storms and local lines going down. As Loy Yang comes back on line - a big job on its own as all turbines tripped when the yard did - most will have their power back pretty quickly. There was a recorded downburst during the storm where the pylons were flattened. Could be interesting to see if the smelter uses this as an opportunity to pull the pin.

It’s been a busy afternoon but I’ve been chatting to Ops from all Supply Authorities this arvo - they have a busy week ahead of them.