POWER FAILURE IN WELLINGTON

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24023, 11 August 1943, Page 2

POWER FAILURE IN WELLINGTON

SUB-STATION DAMAGED BY HIGH WIND ' (P.A.) WELLINGTON. August &.-• High winds through the night cau»w minor damage to the overhead equipment at the Khandallah sub-station #t 6.48 a.m. to-day, leading to a wide-' spread failure of power in the southern part of the Wellington supply area. • One of the jumpers carrying powflf’ from the high voltage lines to the out* door transformers went adrift, ancL caused a dead short. This brought opt all the lines from Mangahao to Kh9H*' dallah, and also the line through ttl*' Wairarapa, and the tremendous sitrgO; affected sub-stations at Mastertotli Greylown, Upper Hutt, Mailing, Para* paraumu, and Pahautanui. The Wellington station at Evans Bay was not in operation at the time. It was t° come in at 7.30 a.m., but one unit war. supplying 6000’kilowatts in 13 minutes* The biggest sufferers were person ß using trams to get to work. Through a number of complications it was 25 minutes before the tram service Wfll got going. One complication was that the trams that were first held up were those by which the tram staff itself came lo work. Special buses were sent out to gather the staff.