Power restored after interruption to Cairns area

1/12/2011

Power has been restored to all customers in the Cairns region following an unexpected fault at Powerlink Queensland’s Woree Substation that affected approximately 80,000 customers at around 10:51am today.

Powerlink Chief Operating Officer, Simon Bartlett said Ergon Energy and Powerlink crews worked as quickly and safely as possible to restore supply to customers by 11:45am.

“The electricity transmission network supplying the Cairns area has a duplicated system, meaning that either system can supply the Cairns area if the other system is out of service for any reason,” Mr Bartlett said.

“Today, in order for crews to complete essential maintenance work safely – as is standard industry practice – one system had been temporarily taken out of service and power supply was continuing to be supplied to Cairns through the ‘duplicate system’.

“However, an unexpected electrical fault occurred at Woree Substation during the essential maintenance, resulting in the interruption to electricity supply.

“We apologise for any inconvenience and thank people for their patience during restoration efforts.”

Mr Bartlett said Powerlink would undertake an investigation to the electrical fault cause.