Inquiry highlights lessons from Penrose outage

Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges has welcomed the Electricity Authority’s report on the October 2014 outage at Penrose substation in Auckland.

“The Authority has conducted a thorough and detailed inquiry into the two-day outage.  This included drawing on a joint investigation by Vector, Transpower and independent experts, together with forensic analysis of the damaged cables,” Mr Bridges says.

The inquiry found the outage was caused by an electrical failure in a cable joint which then caught fire. The Authority concludes that Vector, who owned the cable, and Transpower, who owns Penrose substation, should have identified and taken action to manage this and associated risks.

“As the Authority has highlighted, some important lessons can be drawn from the outage and I note that both Vector and Transpower have already made improvements to their assets and processes following the incident.

“I’m pleased the inquiry has found that, during the outage, Vector and Transpower communicated effectively and every effort was made to get the electricity back up and running as soon as was practicable.

“The outage needs to be seen in the context of a world-class system with strong security of supply.  This Government has made much-needed investment to ensure the lights stay on, including a multi-billion programme to upgrade transmission infrastructure,” says Mr Bridges.

The Electricity Authority report and supporting material can be read here: http://www.ea.govt.nz/monitoring/enquiries-reviews-and-investigations/2014/section-18-review-of-auckland-power-outage-5-october-2014/