Halfway Point For Power Station

Newcastle Herald

Saturday November 25, 2006

By IAN KIRKWOOD

DELTA Electricity will haul a new transformer from Lithgow to replace one that exploded at Vales Point power station this month.

Delta spokeswoman Margaret Miller said the transformer was a spare kept at Delta's Mount Piper power station.

It was so large that it would not go over the Blue Mountains, and an alternative longer route had to be found to bring it to the coast by truck.

Delta was hoping to have it installed next month, but there was no arrival date at the moment.

Ms Miller said Delta would not comment on the cause of the November 8 explosion until an internal investigation was finished in mid-December.

Power industry sources say an electrical insulator "bushing" failed on the output side of the transformer, which took the 20,000 volts from the generator and turned it into 330,000 volts for transmission.

The sources say the resultant short-circuit heated the oil-filled transformer until it exploded.

Each of Vales Point's two 660 megawatt generators need two transformers to run at full output, and it has been running at 50 per cent to 75 per cent capacity since the explosion.

Ms Miller said the smaller Munmorah station, which has two 300 megawatt turbines, would be used if needed.

© 2006 Newcastle Herald

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