First towers appear as specialists flock to Far West to help restore powers

An enormous reconstruction effort is underway at Broken Hill where specialist crews are working around the clock to repair the 3.5km section of the storm-damaged transmission line and reinstate the Far West region’s primary power supply.

More than 100 specialists, technicians and crew have been mobilised to support the reconstruction effort in Broken Hill, coming from all over Australia, including Victoria and South Australia, as well as Transgrid bases at Newcastle, Orange, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga, Western Sydney and Yass.

The first of seven 60-metre-tall emergency response high-voltage transmission towers was safely lifted into place today using a crane.

“I want to be clear, we cannot underestimate the size and scale of this operation and the need to ensure the safety and security of the Broken Hill community and our frontline workers at all times,” Head of Transgrid’s Far West Operations Response Sam Pickering said during the NSW Government’s Emergency Response Media Conference in Broken Hill today.

“We acknowledge that periodic outages have been experienced since the catastrophic weather event, as our crews work through what is a highly complex and challenging technical and operational environment.

“We sincerely apologise for the impacts you have borne following the storms.”

While Broken Hill continues to be supplied power from Transgrid’s large-scale backup generator, specialist teams are also focused on securing additional backup generation to provide further supply certainty to the local community, including:

• Work is targeted to be completed over the next 48 hours on additional portable generation units which will remove reliance on the gas turbine
• Transgrid has worked to fast-track commissioning of a transmission microgrid, with AGL’s Broken Hill Battery Energy Storage System to provide additional backup generation to the region
• Transgrid and Essential Energy are continuing to safely install and operate extra generators across the local network to provide additional backup capacity while repairs to the transmission line are completed.

Meanwhile, Transgrid is fully cooperating with IPART on its investigation and is also working with the NSW Government and the various agencies involved in the response to the Broken Hill natural disaster.

“I want to thank the community of Broken Hill for their patience and for our crews who are working around the clock to complete the works as quickly and as safely as they possibly can,” Mr Pickering said.