Cable trouble. cuts N.I. power

Press, 13 April 1982, Page 6

Cable trouble. cuts N.I. power

PA . Wellington Widespread power cuts hit the North Island yesterday as the Cook Strait cable stations at Fighting Bay, on the northern tip of the South Island, were battered by what local farmers described as the worst weather they had experienced. Salt water spray, driven by strong south-east winds, forced electricity workers to disconnect one of the two “poles" at Fighting Bay reducing the power flow to the north by 300 megawatts. Facilities in the north, usually capable of adjusting power frequencies to cope with such a problem, cut out at the same time.

Widespread power cuts resulted throughout the north for ah average of 15 minutes from about 7.30 a.m.

Mr Michael Turner, senior systems control engineer for the -Ministryof Energy’s Electricity Division in Wellington said the weather since Thursday night had been described „by farmers as the worst they had experienced and the power equipment had proved inadequate to handle it.

A similar salt-pollution-problem occurred on Saturday night in the other pole, Mr Turner, said, but this was taken out and cleaned without power cuts resulting. Yesterday's cuts were prompted by automatic power shedding at selected substations throughout the North Island, made to compensate for the temporary loss of half the Cook Strait cable supply.