Transpower says NI power supply in emergency status

Business / news

Transpower warns of potential blackouts if demand isn't reduced immediately

[updated]

7th Oct 22, 8:19am by admin

Update: This emergency has now ended.

Transpower has issued an emergency notice that extreme power conditions exist in the North Island.

They say there is insufficient generation for the current demand.

They say "if participant response across the North Island is insufficient, the system operator will manage demand to alleviate the Grid Emergency. The system operator may instruct the grid owner to disconnect feeders without further notice to connected parties."

Transpower said there was a fault on the HVDC cable which transfers electricity from the South Island to the North Island.

Some power was still flowing across the cable but a second fault could suddenly stop the flow of electricity, they said.

As the electricity regulator, we are confident that Transpower handled this morning's issues effectively and the impact on consumers was minimal. We continue to work with industry and Transpower to ensure the electricity sector is reliable for consumers.
— Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (@ElectricityAuth) October 6, 2022

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72 Comments

by Nzdan | 7th Oct 22, 8:28am 1665084482

*turns off heat pumps*

by Gummy Bear Hero | 7th Oct 22, 10:07am 1665090466

... burn more Indonesian coal ! ... stuff what the dolphins & green turtles think 🐬

by cjmain | 7th Oct 22, 8:28am 1665084514

*also turns off heat pump*

by Nzdan | 7th Oct 22, 8:31am 1665084695

Just in:

"Electricity operator Transpower has withdrawn a grid emergency that it issued in the North Island on Friday morning after power equipment carrying power from the South Island failed at one of the worst possible times."

by cjmain | 7th Oct 22, 8:33am 1665084839

*turns on heat pump*

by GV 27 | 7th Oct 22, 8:38am 1665085086

Maxed mine out when I saw the notice. I'm not freezing my bollocks off if it goes dark.

Five long years of neglect?

by Nzdan | 7th Oct 22, 8:57am 1665086263

5 years of neglect? Surely goes longer than that. Maybe this is the flaw of a mixed ownership model? Muddies the water on who is responsible for capital improvements.

by GV 27 | 7th Oct 22, 9:17am 1665087456

...182 years of neglect...

by unaha-closp | 7th Oct 22, 10:20am 1665091253

800 years of neglect.

by RickStrauss | 7th Oct 22, 9:47am 1665089227

Selling off the generation companies to get some cash while failing to plan for future demand?

by Nzdan | 7th Oct 22, 10:59am 1665093597

That's the whole idea of selling shares in an asset/company isn't it? To bring in capital to invest in "capital" expense for increased output, production, growth, whatever, and provide the investors with a share of the increased return?

I thought National were the political party that were astute in business, but what projects have they started using this capital? I guess it's easy as a Government, but selling off shares in a private business and frittering away the funds on other things?

by GV 27 | 7th Oct 22, 8:32am 1665084759

Thankfully we have a capable and competent Energy Minister to help address this issue so it doesn't happen again.

by Stuart Mason | 7th Oct 22, 8:46am 1665085607

Here here.

I'm not against changing the type of power we use (from fossil fuels to renewables) but I am against the incompetence around managing that change.

Can kindness be replaced by competence immediately please.

by Gummy Bear Hero | 7th Oct 22, 11:17am 1665094660

If ACT & TOP were running the show we'd get the competence we need , rather than the ideology Jacinda wants ...

by Retail shop | 7th Oct 22, 8:33am 1665084781

Turns off compute..........~~~~~

by Retail shop | 7th Oct 22, 8:40am 1665085249

Reboots. 🏭

by SimonRo | 7th Oct 22, 8:39am 1665085184

Oh, for about 10 seconds there I was about to turn off some appliances for the good of the country. Glad I don't need to do that now. Feeling like a bit of a hero to be honest.

by Baywatch | 7th Oct 22, 8:43am 1665085399

Thanks Jacinda!

by solardb | 7th Oct 22, 11:00am 1665093640

Looks like our education system failed as well.

by interesting1234 | 7th Oct 22, 8:45am 1665085546

How convenient that the spot prices increase 10fold as a result. My source in the power industry tells me the gentailers have doubled their net profit in the last year anyway, looks like they're coming back for more. one cable just 'happened' to fail at the worst possible time? I'll let you decide on that one

by Beanie | 7th Oct 22, 9:17am 1665087427

$40 South Island power gets sold for $120,000 in the North Island. I had thought the South Island would seek independence within 50 years, but it might be much sooner than that. The North would learn how to cope with winter the same as Germany.

by mfd | 7th Oct 22, 9:18am 1665087503

Not sure if you're suggesting one of the gentailers committed industrial sabotage, or that they managed to twist the arm of Transpower (who actually run the HVDC) into turning off their equipment at high reputational cost, just to profit some gentailers. Neither seems plausible to me.

The net profit figures are quite deceptive and heavily influenced by Meridian selling their Australian assets (reporting a big profit), and derivative accounting by Genesis (big loss last year, big profit this year).

by Pragmatist | 7th Oct 22, 3:05pm 1665108334

Can you stop with all the logic and data, there no place for that sort of nonsense in this meeting of the Thin Tin Fedora Club.

by unaha-closp | 7th Oct 22, 10:29am 1665091771

Has there been a Russian/American naval flotilla in Cook Strait in the last fortnight?

by Squishy | 7th Oct 22, 8:53am 1665086036

I nominate load shedding to start in Wellington. Leaders heat last.

by chebbo | 7th Oct 22, 8:53am 1665086037

I know what'll solve this, more EVs.

by GV 27 | 7th Oct 22, 8:56am 1665086203

You're not going to be pumping much petrol if we get rolling blackouts thanks our craphouse infrastructure either.

by SimonP | 7th Oct 22, 9:05am 1665086700

EVs are very easy to load shed. Mine stops charging automatically at 7am when on-peak kicks in. I could have turned it off sooner if I had known there was a shortage.

by Ocelot | 7th Oct 22, 9:18am 1665087490

EV's will help grid stability, when charged off peak they help reduce the troughs making it easier for power suppliers to manage load. Also, there's 2 way charging where you can have your EV automatically feed the grid when the price spikes like crazy like it did this morning. EV's will be the solution to intermittent renewable energy.

by chebbo | 7th Oct 22, 9:45am 1665089146

Except "off peak" will suddenly become "peak" once everyone is trying to charge their cars at the same time.

Reminds me of a quote by that great ancient philosopher Homer (J. Simpson):

Alcohol: the cause of - and solution to - all of life's problems

by GV 27 | 7th Oct 22, 9:46am 1665089170

Not every EV will be plugged in all once lmao.

by unaha-closp | 7th Oct 22, 10:36am 1665092196

At the Auckland price it would take about $3,000 to fill up a Nissan Leaf.

by kiwimm | 7th Oct 22, 11:43am 1665096214

If every vehicle was EV, it is only about 20% of total load

by SimonP | 7th Oct 22, 11:51am 1665096712

On the contrary, many of the newer EV's have Vehicle to Load, so you can plug household appliances in to the car if the grid can't cope or power prices are too high. All of those big batteries can have a role in equalising supply an demand.

by sparrow | 7th Oct 22, 11:11am 1665094265

@chebbo more EV's most certainly could help. People could get a text asking permission to take power from grid connected EV's to get through a temporary demand surge.

I just read the other day about a set-up, think it was California, where a fleet of electric school buses was being used for that purpose.

by chebbo | 7th Oct 22, 11:25am 1665095107

That doesn't solve the issue of insufficient power generation and infrastructure though, which is the actual issue here. Using people's cars as a giant emergency battery only works if they're all able to charge them up in the first place (and probably not even then; there are some massive assumptions being made here).

by Palmtree08 | 7th Oct 22, 12:34pm 1665099250

Even better, fly in more demand and tell us we're better off with more people shivering in the dark.

by ShoeboxCharlie | 7th Oct 22, 8:56am 1665086173

Quick unplug your EV's! Or switch them to thermo nuclear mode.

by kiwimm | 7th Oct 22, 11:44am 1665096293

Mine charged on its charger 11pm to 7am. Was cheap as too.

by Brock Landers | 7th Oct 22, 9:24am 1665087890

Countries that don't have the infrastructure to support their population are developing countries.

by sparrow | 7th Oct 22, 11:14am 1665094469

There seems to be a few "developed" countries in similar situations especially with housing and transport infrastructure. Those that have encouraged breakneck population growth from migration as a quick and nasty economic boost.

by mfd | 7th Oct 22, 11:25am 1665095159

Hard to think of a country that doesn't have infrastructure issues every now and then. Luckily for us, they are manifesting as things like 'if a major fault at peak use time on a particularly cold day, you might have to reduce power use for an hour'. Pretty manageable.

Back in the UK there was a discussion every few years after a particularly hard frost about how many snow ploughs and gritters each council should have on hand. Essentially - how much more council tax would you be happy to pay to reduce that 0.1% chance of having an icy road? Sometimes a failure or near-miss is the rational outcome of a cost-benefit analysis when the alternative is to massively overengineer every system we have.

by nigelh | 7th Oct 22, 6:01pm 1665118897

Perhaps we should have a new designation. 2nd world countries. Those who aspire to be first and are not 3rd world. NZ fit the bill?

by Grattaway | 7th Oct 22, 9:56am 1665089819

We do have a real lack of leadership in this critical area of infrastructure

Govt could be the emergency provider - or contract owner of that back up generation

Improved gas supply would help but politics destroyed that option

New geothermal would be good

Much better use of the smart meters already fitted

Forcing generators out of the retail market may also assist but work needed here as to best option

by mfd | 7th Oct 22, 10:13am 1665090796

Separate ownership of the coal and gas generation is what Contact and Genesis want. It's a tricky position - we need their generation until we have a better alternative, but with a limited lifespan and dwindling use why would Genesis keep up the investment in keeping Huntly running? An NZ ThermalCo run as a public body to ensure supply could be the solution.

Alternative take - Huntly is old and run down, and paying for the carbon credits is too expensive so Genesis want the government to bail them out so they can invest in renewables instead.

by Sam B | 7th Oct 22, 10:56am 1665093362

Yeah, it’s a mess. All the Govt incentives are to get out of coal completely, but if they actually do the consequences will be… awkward.

by WestieAJ | 7th Oct 22, 11:50am 1665096602

Genesis Net profit was up 600% to $221.9m for the year to June 30 2022 from last year's profit of $31.7m.

If anyone needs a bail out it's Genesis. Think of their poor shareholders.

by mfd | 7th Oct 22, 11:55am 1665096935

As I mentioned above, this is because last year they had a big paper loss from derivative contracts and this year a big paper profit. The 600% increase is not particularly meaningful.

by Carlos67 | 7th Oct 22, 10:42am 1665092579

My weather station recorded an all time low temp of about 1.8 Deg C at 2am this morning. Personally I left the heatpump on all night at 20C because it was 5 Deg C before the sun even went down yesterday, probably the coldest night in 2 years down here in Tauranga. Better turn the heatpump off now.

by kiwimm | 7th Oct 22, 11:48am 1665096480

My Passive House dropped to a record overnight low of 19.2 degrees with no heating on. The quality of housing really needs to improve in this country.

by Final Account | 7th Oct 22, 12:14pm 1665098045

Humble brag. I've got a 16kw ducted AC system in my modest 3 bedroom brick and tile place so I can keep my house at 15 degrees in the middle of summer with all the windows and doors open so my beer doesn't get cold while I'm working on my rotaries in the garage ((both) idling, spitting out flames and fumes at the same time) whilst one of my 4 kids mows the lawns and the others dance around a bonfire eating red meat whilst watering the lawns with sprinklers in the middle of summer.

I'm thinking of getting a diesel generator as back up power and boiling plastic on the bonfire in a retort chamber for low quality fuel to power it.

by kiwimm | 7th Oct 22, 12:43pm 1665099830

Passive House, solar, EV, electric lawnmower. Total annual energy cost = $77.

Worth bragging about :)

by Final Account | 7th Oct 22, 5:03pm 1665115408

I'd rather spend $150k on an investment property.

by Palmtree08 | 7th Oct 22, 12:45pm 1665099902

I'm sure your (4) kids will fondly remember your wisdom, as they huddle around a smouldering fire, fueled with their own bodily waste while spit roasting an emaciated rat.

by Final Account | 7th Oct 22, 5:00pm 1665115217

Rabbit you mean. Come on now.

by Pragmatist | 7th Oct 22, 3:09pm 1665108559

I mean, who'd want a cold beer in summer anyway. Glad you can keep your beer warm in summer, sounds like a tough challenge.....

by Final Account | 7th Oct 22, 4:58pm 1665115081

🤣🤣

by Chris-M | 7th Oct 22, 11:27am 1665095232

We are on the cusp of buying thousands of electric cars under strong encouragement from the government. Where is the power coming from to power them. Where are the plans to upgrade the power supply network for them.

The crisis today illustrates that our county has no surplus renewable power on an annual basis, so these electric cars can only be powered by fossil fuel and so will not help reduce co2 emissions, if not increase them. nor do we have anything like an adequate network . Hybrids are the only sensible option we have to reduce emissions at the moment until we have an adequate 100% renewable generation system and a fit for purpose network. And that is without even considering the scarcity of Lithium production.

To give you some idea of the scale of what we face, the Vector AGM pointed out that currently the peak load for Auckland is currently about 1800 mega watts. With electric cars this will rise to over 5000 mega watts. With a smart controlled network this could be reduced to something in the order of 3500 mega watts.

The government are totally asleep at the wheel.

Cheers

by GV 27 | 7th Oct 22, 11:26am 1665095194

Ah yes, hybrids, that'll do the trick. All of the moving parts and complexity of an ICE with the complexity and engineering challenges of an EV, in one simple package. Throw in smaller batteries that have to charged up and run down more often and you're definitely onto a winner there.

by Chris-M | 7th Oct 22, 11:28am 1665095299

Do you have the vaguest clue what you are talking about?

by Carlos67 | 7th Oct 22, 11:41am 1665096077

Looks pretty accurate to me. What's the point of having both ICE and Electric in one car ? Sure it may be a seller because it negates the "Range Anxiety" but its not a winner. The solution is smaller turbo charged cars with smaller engines and smaller electric cars. Until everything starts getting smaller and lighter instead of bigger and heavier we are stuffed.

by kiwimm | 7th Oct 22, 11:49am 1665096586

Do you? The issue overnight was a transmission problem, not a capacity problem

by GV 27 | 7th Oct 22, 12:01pm 1665097264

Yes. Are you capable of mustering a response worth replying to?

by The Person | 9th Oct 22, 11:16am 1665267367

There is lots of new solar, wind, and geothermal under construction right now, that is where the power to charge EVs is going to come from.

And most of it is in the North Island, so not affected by Cook Street cable outages

by Final Account | 7th Oct 22, 11:30am 1665095439

Where's PDK to tell us all the DC cable under the Cook Straight is an exercise in futility against the entropy of the universe?

by Gummy Bear Hero | 7th Oct 22, 12:08pm 1665097698

... ha haaaaaa ! ... best post of the day : cheers ...

by Brock Landers | 7th Oct 22, 12:35pm 1665099353

It's the physics!

by lastlegs | 7th Oct 22, 11:47am 1665096464

looks like we were more innovative in the 1950s,the HVDC link in particular.they have a mercury arc rectifier at motat,looks like it belongs in dr frankensteins lab.

by Final Account | 7th Oct 22, 11:56am 1665096979

Its because innovation and risk used to be rewarded. Now compliance and hesitancy does.

by solardb | 7th Oct 22, 12:02pm 1665097336

We need pumped storage in the North island,no major sites available, but plenty of smaller ones.

by kaczor47 | 7th Oct 22, 2:33pm 1665106407

But but but....NZ is nuclear free!

Let's pat ourselves on the backs. And rug up.

by Chris Morris | 8th Oct 22, 3:50pm 1665197413

All those comments above about gentailers just show they don't know what they are talking about, only their own prejudices. The problem was a harmonic filter at Haywards so they had to rapidly reduce power coming across on the DC. Happened about 5am and sorted about by 8:30 so they could then load back up and turn Whirinaki off. . That is Transpower's equipment and that company has always been 100% government owned.

When you have generation in the South Island and load in the north, you get these sort of problems. It won't be the last. This one was exacerbated by the big drop in wind generation overniight.