The state government has rejected Basslink’s argument that an interconnector failure which triggered this year’s energy crisis was unavoidable.
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An independent investigation into the failure returned a “cause unknown” result which prompted the company to pressure Hydro Tasmania to resume its cable lease payments.
The state-owned energy company stopped paying facility fees in September as it disagreed with Basslink’s argument that the outage was a “force majeure” or unavoidable event.
The investigation was conducted by Cable Consulting International (CCI) in laboratories in Italy and the United Kingdom over six months.
It determined that the fault had occurred within the cable and that there was was no evidence of any pre-existing mechanical damage to the cable.
But the point of initiation within the fault path and the direction of the electrical failure could not be determined due to the extent of the damage.
The investigation found that operating conditions up to the failure were no different to the year before and that the cable was within its thermal rating
Basslink chief executive Malcolm Eccles said the report, which had been provided to Hydro Tasmania and the state government, provided sufficient evidence that the fault was unforeseen and unavoidable.
“Given this, we would like Hydro Tasmania to recommence meeting its contractual obligations to Basslink immediately,” he said.
“Despite best efforts, the CCI investigation has concluded that it is not possible to determine the cause of the fault.”
Energy Minister Matthew Groom said he did not accept Basslink’s position on the investigation and that it was important that the fault’s cause was understood.
A Hydro Tasmanian spokesman said the company would carefully consider the technical material expressed in the report and make its own assessment.
He said Hydro had offered Basslink “a good faith payment” on Monday to facilitate continued discussions on the facility fee issue.
Opposition Leader Bryan Green said continued non-payment of the facility fees would undermine future energy security in the state.
Hydro’s spokesman said the payments had no bearing on energy security as storages remained above 45 per cent and the Tamar Valley Power Station remained on standby.