Massive storm sends South Australia power grid into meltdown
SEVERE weather cut power to all of South Australia yesterday with storm damage to infrastructure forcing the entire electricity network to shut down.
An incident involving infrastructure near Port Augusta yesterday afternoon prompted the failure of the entire SA network, Premier Jay Weatherill said.
Mr Weatherill said the state’s energy-generation assets remained intact and there did not appear to be any damage to the interconnector with Victoria. The Australian energy market operator had taken control of the system and restoration had begun last night.
According to the SA Power Networks website, about 200,000 properties were without power.
“What we have is essentially a weather event which has damaged some infrastructure,” the premier said.
“The system protects itself and protects the assets by closing down because of the sudden surge in the system.”
The blackout prompted police to call for people to avoid travel if possible as roads in the centre of Adelaide and the suburbs became grid- locked. Patrols were also dispatched to direct traffic at major intersections amid reports of accidents.
All metropolitan train services were cancelled with buses made available for some commuters.
Some buildings had emergency generators and authorities said hospitals were operating as normal on backup power.
The blackout came as strong winds and heavy rain lashed parts of SA with the Bureau of Meteorology warning super cell thunderstorms were possible across the central and mid-north districts.
The bureau issued a severe thunderstorm warning for an area stretching from the Riverland to Marree.
It said super cells within those storms could produce wind gusts up to 140km/h along with heavy rain that could cause flash flooding.
The extreme weather reached the city about midday. Flood warnings were in place for many areas including the Adelaide Hills.
Heavy falls were also predicted in the mid north and warnings were issued about swells as high as 10m along the state’s coast.