State’s power partially restored after wild weather
Mobile generators have helped restore power to parts of the state’s north after last week’s storm damaged transmission towers, but mining operations at BHP’s Olympic Dam are still offline.
SA Power Networks has installed mobile generators around the mid and far north of the state following last week’s storm, which impacted power supply to over 36,000 people.
SA Power Networks head of corporate affairs Cecilia Shutz said its workers “had to assess damage to an area of network spanning approximately 30,000 square kilometres – almost the entire Flinders Ranges”.
A damaged power line near Quorn. Photo: Josh Murray / Facebook
“Our crews have worked consistently since last Thursday to assess damage and prepare the network for generation, which involved multiple generators, bypass equipment and heavy vehicles stationed across three townships,” she said.
The transmission network supporting Port Augusta to Leigh Creek saw 19 transmission towers damaged, with around 1600 people in Quorn, Hawker and Leigh Creek left without power.
SA Power Networks said the damage would take time to fix, and that the mobile generators were now “servicing critical infrastructure such as telecommunications, water, hospitals and schools”.
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The storm blew off the roof of one house under construction in Quorn. Photo: Richard Dyson / Facebook
The storm blew off the roof of one house under construction in Quorn. Photo: Richard Dyson / Facebook
The entire township of Roxby Downs and Olympic Dam was also blacked out after several electricity towers were damaged, though a generator from Olympic Dam restored power to the town the same night.
Mining operations at BHP’s Olympic Dam site were paused, with a spokesperson for BHP saying its backup generators were “supplying power to Roxby Downs, Olympic Dam airport, accommodation villages and critical on-site infrastructure”.
An SA Power Networks outage map on Friday morning.
“The majority of Olympic Dam surface plant and underground mining operations have been paused. BHP will proceed with planned smelter maintenance works from this week to make productive use of the unplanned downtime.”
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The spokesperson said BHP had been working with ElectraNet and Enervon, and estimated it would be “approximately 14 days from the initial outage” before power was restored to Olympic Dam and Roxby Downs.
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Further minor outages are expected at Hawker as crews work to restore the power lines supplying the area. Residents of Quorn, Hawker and Leigh Creek have been asked to keep their solar systems off to ensure stable operation of the generators.
SA Power Networks said it would continue to work with ElectraNet and the state government’s Zone Emergency Support team to determine an expected restoration time of the Davenport-Leigh Creek Line.
Olympic Dam airport on Thursday night. Photo: Meegan Barlow / Facebook
Roxby Downs Council CEO Roy Blight said winds of “over 130 kilometres per hour” had caused the damage.
“[Thursday] was a very hot day. It was over 40 degrees, and became very windy late in the afternoon, and there was a pretty severe storm that came through about 4:30 and that’s when the power went out,” he said on ABC Radio Adelaide.
A power line damaged at Quorn. Photo: Facebook / SA Power Networks
“That was followed by a pretty severe sandstorm, and the sky went red for about a quarter an hour, and that was followed by a short, sharp rain shower, which sort of settled the dust and the sand.
“It’s like being sandblasted if you’re out in it. It’s not like dust, it is actually gritty, and it hurts.”
Almost 250,000 lightning strikes were recorded. Photo: SA Power Networks / Instagram
SA Power Networks said there were around 28,000 outages at 6pm on Thursday, with around 250,000 lightning strikes recorded during the storm with a peak of 400 strikes a minute.
