Switchwise.com.au Blog

Archive for April, 2009

Another EnergyAustralia power outage

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Energy Australia is certainly having a bad run of luck with its transmission and distribution networks. Following major power failures in March, which impacted the CBD and inner-Sydney, AAP reports that more than 1,500 homes on Sydney’s northern beaches lost power for approximately 30 minutes last night at around 10pm. EnergyAustralia attributed the outage to a minor fault on an overhead powerline.

It has also emerged that the CBD power failure on 30 March was actually the result of excavation work at Circular Quay. The NSW Government says that the cable was probably struck by a backhoe digging a hole and then the hole was filled back in. It seems that the culprits apparently failed to “dial before they dug” and then buried the evidence of their “crime”.

ACT electricity prices to rise 4 per cent

Monday, April 6th, 2009

The ICRC has announced that ACT electricity prices are to rise by 3.8% from 1 July 2009. Whilst price rises are never good news for consumers I think Canberrans should consider themselves lucky to be seeing such a modest increase. The ACT suffered significant rises in the previous two years due to the impact of the drought and other factors on wholesale supply costs.

The ACT Government is putting a very positive spin on this announcement, comparing this “below inflation” level price increase with the 18 to 21 per cent price increases announced by the NSW Government a few weeks ago.

You can read the ICRC media release here.

TRUenergy opens “cleanest” power station

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

TRUenergy officially opened its new gas-fired power station near Wollongong, claiming that it will generate enough power for 200,000 New South Wales households.

The $430 million station, which took 2 years to construct, is claimed to be the most efficient of its type in Australia, producing 65% less carbon dioxide emissions than a typical coal-fired plant.

See TRUenergy’s media release here.