Heat goes on Transpower after Wel Networks reveals grid operator made huge error
Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Hamilton-based lines company Wel Networks says it was erroneously instructed by Transpower to make massive cuts to the load on its network of “more than 20 per cent” on Monday night.
Information provided by Wel indicated that if Transpower had not made the error, it would only have needed to cut off 1373 homes from power, instead of cutting power to a total of 17,752 homes as it did.
Transpower chief executive Alison Andrew acknowledged on Wednesday that the national grid operator had made an error when translating a 1 per cent load cut into individual “megawatt” allocations that lines companies were told not to exceed on Monday night.
However, the scale of the error claimed by Wel had not been made clear before Wel’s statement, which appears to highlight Transpower’s culpability for the power cuts.
Transpower also asked other lines companies to make deeper cuts or smaller cuts than necessary but Andrew said in some other cases its error was picked up before the cuts were made.
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* WEL Networks keeps consumers in the dark as fury builds over power outages in Waikato
* Power cuts: Genesis boss says firm feels 'victimised' as Transpower admits error
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Wel Networks services the Hamilton region where most of the power cuts were concentrated.
Lines companies can in some cases reduce demand by instead remotely turning off only homes’ hot water systems, though Andrew said on Tuesday that she believed much of that load had already been taken off by the time it ordered cuts on Monday evening.
Some homes would have been cut-off “for sure”, even if Transpower had not made the error, she said.
Wel Networks chief executive Garth Dibley indicated the lines company had been silent until now “as it was Transpower’s place to initially explain how the nationwide emergency situation occurred and the errors they made in the allocation of load control”.
“Under government regulation we must adhere to instruction from the system operator in an emergency and that is exactly what we did,” Dibley said.
“It should be noted that we were instructed to act with immediate effect and did not have visibility of the deficit in generation that Transpower was trying to manage or what had been requested of others,” he added.
Dibley said Wel Networks “repeatedly questioned” Transpower regarding the volume of the load it had instructed the company to drop.
“However, Transpower was insistent on the volume,” he said.
Transpower earlier sidestepped questions on whether it expected Genesis Energy to turn on the third coal-fired turbine at its Huntly power station when it asked generators to increase their energy offers on Monday afternoon.
Wel’s revelation came as recriminations continued to rage over the power cuts that left about 20,000 homes in the central and eastern North Island without electricity on Monday evening, when a forecast cold snap coincided with an unplanned outage of Genesis’ Tokaanu hydro power station on the Tongariro River.
Transpower first warned at 6.42am on Monday of a possible power shortage between 5.30pm and 8.30pm that evening but it was not until 1.02pm that the grid operator issued another amber warning specifically requesting generators to “increase their energy offers”.
Genesis said its Rankine unit takes “more than six hours” and usually closer to 8½ hours to generate a “meaningful amount” of energy, and “up to 10 hours” to reach full capacity.
Transpower declared a grid emergency at 5.10pm though it was not until 6.47pm that it ordered lines companies to make 1 per cent cuts, triggering the rolling outages.
Transpower spokeswoman Deborah Gray would not say on Wednesday whether Transpower had expected Genesis would fire up its Rankine unit as a result of its 1.02pm notice, or why – if it did have that expectation – it did not communicate that directly to Genesis.
“Our expectation was that all of industry would respond appropriately to the information provided and the warning notice to increase generation and decrease demand,” she said.
Genesis chief executive Marc England said on Wednesday he felt Genesis had been “victimised”, and unfairly criticised by Energy Minister Megan Woods over its actions, saying only Transpower had full visibility over the market on Monday.
The Electricity Authority – the industry regulator – has not responded to repeated requests for information on Tuesday and Wednesday over whether customers impacted by the power cuts are entitled to compensation.
That is despite its chief executive, James Stevenson-Wallace, announcing an investigation and saying it was “not acceptable” that the power cuts came without warning.
Mercury and Genesis have offered customers who lost power a $50 credit.
Electric Kiwi chief executive Luke Blincoe objected to Genesis’ offer, saying it should be compensating all customers or none of them and arguing the credit exposed a conflict of interest among gentailers.
“If they are going to compensate, it should be to all customers who have been affected – not just their own – otherwise they are effectively saying their generation obligations only extend to their own customer base,” he said.
An industry source suggested the confusion, recriminations and the lack of clear accountability over Monday’s power crisis were likely to give fresh impetus to calls for a major structural reform of the electricity sector.
England appeared to help make that case, telling Radio NZ the generator was only responsible for the outage to the extent of being “part of a market” that had let the Government down.
A spokeswoman for Woods noted three reviews were taking place into the power cuts – an internal Transpower review, another being conducted by the Electricity Authority, and a third that Woods had instructed the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to undertake.