Redclyffe Substation, from where the power supply has actually been cut two times this year, by a cyclone and by a cat. Photo / Warren Buckland
Investigators hot on the tale of the cat intruder that paid the ultimate cost when it short-circuited Napier’s power supply and plunged the city into darkness on Wednesday night are looking for out how the cat entered the works at Redclyffe Substation.
The paws button turned the lights out on over 6000 Unison Networks customers instantly and as much as 25,000 throughout Napier and additional north as staff worked to bring back supply, with the majority of restoring it within 40 minutes.
Some parts, in Mārewa and Maraenui, were not impacted as that location’s supply originates from a substation at Whakatu, a Unison representative said.
The stations are run by nationwide grid operator Transpower, and basic supervisor Mark Ryall said birds and rodents get “caught up” in the equipment from time to time, however cats do not get in “very often”.
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“There are a range of measures that we take to prevent animals getting into equipment, and we will be looking at how the cat got in and how we can prevent it happening again,” he said.
“At this stage, we aren’t sure how the cat got in there,” he said. “We also don’t know if it was someone’s pet but, given the location of the substation [near Napier City Council’s Redclyffe Refuse Transfer Station]it is more likely to be a wild cat.”
A dead cat was discovered in the location, and Taradale Vet Hospital reported a departed feline had actually been provided, supposedly from the Redclyffe location, and it was not microchipped to connect to any owner. As of late Thursday afternoon, the cat had actually not been declared.
The cat died when it entered into contact with the “live” environment of a transformer at the website, which has actually been going through significant reinstatement after its failure when it was flooded throughout Cyclone Gabrielle on the early morning of February 14, after which the majority of Napier lacked electrical power for as much as a fortnight.
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Ryall said a great deal of work had actually been done to bring back security to the electrical power grid in Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast because the cyclone, and the cat might have snuck in by a deadly hair.
“We have this week restored the region to pre-cyclone levels of security everywhere, apart from for customers supplied by Unison Networks from Redclyffe Substation, and it is unfortunate that the cat found this one remaining weak spot,” he said.
Redclyffe has 2 transformers providing the location. Transpower can’t run them in parallel up until brand-new security systems remain in location, which is anticipated to be done by September, Ryall said.
“This means one is in operation and one is on standby, and if a fault happens, we need to get someone to the site to manually switch the transformers,” he said.
“In normal operating conditions they would switch automatically, but running them in parallel without adequate protection would risk damaging both at once, leading to a lengthy power cut,” he said.
While there is an increased threat of power cuts “as a result of this configuration”, failures are most likely to be of brief duration, as it was on Wednesday night, when power was brought back to the majority of homes within 40 minutes.
Transpower is still thinking about Redclyffe Substation’s future due to Cyclone Gabrielle’s destruction, with alternatives consisting of raising it on the website to enhance durability or moving all or part of it to a brand-new website.
Experts are producing upgraded flood modelling for the website and will be raising important equipment to enhance flood durability in the interim, however there’s no word on whether the behaviour of felonious felines is likewise being thought about.
