Tens of thousands of residents of the outback town of Broken Hill and surrounds have been suffering from regular blackouts for the past two weeks after a storm knocked down transmission towers and the expensive “renewable microgrid” failed to provide backup power.
Despite $650 million being spent on a wind farm, solar plant and battery facility, the area in far west New South Wales has been without reliable power since October 17, but in farcical scenes residents have been told to switch off their household solar panels so as not to trip the diesel-powered generator which is recharging the battery.
The AGL battery facility, 6km from the airport, was built with the intention of providing backup power in the event of line failure, but AGL said it was disabled under guidance from power company Transgrid, which wanted to use a compressed air storage alternative instead.
The 50MW Pinnacles Place battery, which was cut off from the 200MW Silverton wind farm and the 53MW Broken Hill solar farm, was eventually connected to one of two existing 40-year-old gas turbine generators, although the process took more than a week and has provided unstable output.
Transgrid, which is majority foreign-owned including 20% by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, said on Wednesday it estimated mains power would be restored by November 2, and claimed backup generation had provided uninterrupted power to Broken Hill for the past five days.
But residents in the surrounding area said on Tuesday night that they were still losing power, and vented their anger at the money wasted on the “renewable microgrid”.
“So three nights in a row at 6pm our power has gone down 30km east 0f Broken Hill,” one local said.
“Who are these idiots in charge of this complete screw up, heads need to roll over this. Broken Hill needs answers to all this, shut down a legendary mining town operation, total incompetent bullshit.”
“A city with a wind farm, a solar farm and a big battery, but no electricity. Someone screwed up badly,” another said.
Local power provider Essential Energy confirmed that its generator at Pinnacles Place had shut down for an unknown reason, leaving 1,800 residents of small towns in Menindee, Sunset Strip, Kinalung, Wilcannia, White Cliffs, Milparinka, Packsaddle, Tibooburra, Mt Gipps, Stephens Creek and surrounding rural properties without electricity.
Broken Hill Mayor Tom Kennedy told the National News Network that Transgrid had failed to meet its contractual obligations to supply power to the town, and that it could be fined up to 10% of their annual revenue of $910 million, although the fine would not go towards the affected communities.
“In my view they are in breach of their contract,” Mr Kennedy said.
“They could be potentially fined up to $90m.”
Mr Kennedy also revealed that a local mine was running equipment it didn’t need to help absorb the excess power being sent into the grid by rooftop solar panels, in order to stop the generator from tripping and shutting down, costing the mining operator hundreds of thousands of dollars a day.
The NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) said last week it had launched an investigation into the safety and reliability of the infrastructure serving Broken Hill and surrounds.
Meanwhile local charities have been running foodbanks in Broken Hill and delivering hampers to residents of surrounding towns and rural properties who have been forced to throw away food due to lack of refrigeration.
Charities have also distributed 2,000 grocery and fuel vouchers.
Header image: Left: Transgrid workers emergency high-transmission towers (Transgrid). Right: Charity workers handout Foodbank hampers (Home in Place – Facebook)
