By Jeremy Sollars
THE loss of power to nearly 2000 households north and east of Warwick on Saturday night after a power pole fire came less than a week after the State Government lavished praise on itself for the completion of $33 million worth of electricity upgrades in Warwick.
Ergon says the power pole which caught on fire near the Eight Mile intersection late on Saturday afternoon caused the 33,000 volt line to fall onto the 11,000 volt line, with the lines dropping close to the roadway.
As well as the extensive disruption to power supplies the Cunningham Highway to Brisbane was closed for several hours, with traffic diverted through Toowoomba.
On Sunday Ergon said power to the affected areas, including Allora, Freestone, Gladfield, Hendon, Massie and Deuchar was restored just after 9pm on Saturday, although some isolated fault calls were still being received.
Queensland Energy Minister Mark Bailey issued a press release on Tuesday 1 November saying completion of a 10-year program of power upgrades in Warwick would “ensure a reliable power supply for years to come on the Southern Downs”.
The $33 million decade-long works included replacement of the Warwick East sub-station.
“Ten years ago, the Warwick region was one of the worst-performing parts of Ergon’s network and customers experienced an unacceptable number of power supply interruptions during severe storm seasons,” Mr Bailey said in last week’s statement.
“Earlier projects such as the refurbishment of one of the sub-transmission lines from Toowoomba to Warwick and rebuilding the second one as a new, high-reliability line, plus an upgrade to the West Warwick sub-station, turned that around.”
An Ergon Energy spokesman said on Monday the indications were that a faulty insulator on an 11kV feeder line cross-arm resulted in electricity tracking and burning the top of the pole.
“This caused the 33kV sub-transmission line to fall into the 11kV line underneath it on the same pole, triggering the network protection system to cut power to about 1900 customers at 5.35pm.
“Power was restored to most customers shortly after 9pm, although there were upwards of a dozen single fault calls due to blown fuses on the feeder line, including some calls coming in today (Monday).
“The location of the pole at the intersection of the Cunningham and New England highways meant the incident also had an impact on traffic, especially between Brisbane and Warwick.”
