Basslink blasts Hydro report

BASSLINK chief executive Malcolm Eccles has slammed Hydro’s explanation for a 2015 outage as “hocus pocus”, but remains confident talks between the parties will continue.

The electricity cable operator has agreed to temporarily operate the interconnector at a lower limit after a Hydro-commissioned report found it had been overloaded, contributing to a months-long energy crisis that cost the state $140 million.

Hydro chief executive Steve Davy said this week the outage had been caused by the cable being operated at 630MW for extended periods, rather than the recommended continuous limit of 500MW.

But in an escalating spat between the parties, Mr Eccles said Hydro’s findings actually supported Basslink consultant Cable Consulting International’s findings that the fault’s cause was unknown.

“They’re not based on any facts, they’re not based on testing a piece of cable, they’re purely based on a model that somebody’s created in a lab and it doesn’t even use real parameters of cable measurement,” he said.

“As far as we’re concerned, it’s a model, it’s theoretical, it’s up in the air, it’s hocus pocus.

“Their expert says the fault cause could not be proven, which lines up with Cable Consulting International.”

Mr Eccles said Basslink would temporarily heed a recommendation to operate at 500MW while it considered the Hydro report in detail and consulted with the cable’s manufacturer.

“I’m not saying we disregard this report completely because that would be irresponsible,” he said. “We’re being prudent, we’re being methodical, we’re being sensible, we’re doing what any good, renowned worldwide operator would do.”

Hydro has agreed to continue paying full fees to Basslink until the end of March while the operator reviews the new report.

Its release in the week before Christmas, and public announcement less than an hour after it was made available to Basslink, had damaged relations between the parties, Mr Eccles said.

Talks had been under way, although compensation for the outage had not been discussed, he said.

“We hope we can sit down and between both parties come to a commercial resolution that both parties are happy with,” he said.

Hydro released a statement welcoming the 500MW flow limit as “a prudent interim measure”.

“We’re confident in the findings of the two global experts,” the statement said.

“The cable fault expert attended the forensic examination of the cable, conducted in Europe.”

Energy Minister Guy Barnett also welcomed the decision to run at a lower capacity.

Mr Eccles said a repeat of the failure, which sparked a months-long energy crisis in Tasmania, was unlikely.

He said similar cables around the world averaged failure rates of once every 25-30 years.