Backup generator in Broken Hill offline early morning Friday 25th October 2024

That email alert triggered via ‘Notifications’ widget in ez2view overnight shows the GB01 unit (the back-up genset that has been supporting the Broken Hill area the past few days) has come offline overnight – early Friday 25th October 2024:

Here’s an update on that time-series chart from the ‘Trends Engine’ widget in ez2view :

Any updates from other sources?

I’ve checked this morning at the following sites for recent updates:

1)  From the NSW Government here has the following in recent days:

(a)  Dated Thursday 24th October was the note ‘NSW Government and Transgrid announce support package for Far West residents impacted by electrical outage’

(b)  Dated Wednesday 23rd October was the note ‘NSW Government response to power outage in Far West NSW’ … which notes:

‘The region is primarily relying on Transgrid’s large-scale back-up generator while the company constructs temporary towers which are expected to be in place by 6 November 2024, weather permitting.’

2)  From Essential Energy here there is nothing since an update on 19th October

3)  From TransGrid here there is nothing since an update

4)  ABC news this morning quotes TransGrid representatives saying that they had detected a fault last night and had to take it offline, and that it was expected to be back later this morning.

PS1 – update after 07:30 NEM time

At 07:30 (NEM time) this morning this subsequent email alert triggered via ‘Notifications’ widget in ez2view overnight shows the GB01 unit commencing the return to service:

PS2 – update after 10:00 NEM time

Additionally, we noted this tweet from the Department of Energy NSW at 08:47 (NEM time) providing a link to further information:

The page linked above directs to here, and this is how the page currently looks:

In particular we note:

‘Four smaller generators have been installed by Essential Energy at Pinnacle Place to provide power to some smaller communities.’

… for readers here, note that the operation of these units is not going to be visible in the AEMO market data we access.