Stakes rise as role of power lines shifts to fore – theage.com.au

Stakes rise as role of power lines shifts to fore

MICHAEL BACHELARD – The Age – October 18, 2009

…The Bushfires Royal Commission has scrutinised the stay-or-go policy, failures in communication, the need for safe places and the role of bunkers – but its examination of the role of power lines in the February 7 fires, which killed 173 people, has attracted much less publicity.

Five fires – half the total – were started by electricity lines. The commission has looked at four – Coleraine, Horsham, Pomborneit and Beechworth – and raised serious questions about the safety of the infrastructure and the regularity of inspections. But the main event will come next month, when the cause of the deadly Kilmore East-Kinglake fire will be examined.

This fire, too, was caused by a single-wire power line. The Sunday Age reported in August that police photographs indicated this line was seriously weakened, rusty and repaired numerous times. Evidence suggests that it broke about 11.30am in 60 to 80 km/h winds, sparked, and caused a fire that would go on to kill 121 people.

Much is at stake for SP AusNet. A legal class action has been launched, and will be fought after the commission completes its hearings. Perhaps as a result of this, in the lead-up to the royal commission hearing, the company has been entirely defensive about the role of its power lines on Black Saturday…

via Stakes rise as role of power lines shifts to fore. – theage.com.au

While this is possibly not the best time to say this, to prevent similar things happening during future heat waves one possibility might be to first trial and install an energy storage capacity in remote towns and remote houses (and to power wireless communications towers) so that long distance power lines could be powered down during extreme weather conditions. A Smart Grid with large capacity batteries (and even without renewable energy sources that could be added later) could be used to provide power to remote towns so that if long distance power lines need to be turned off, those towns will still have access to energy for pumps and communications. One major benefit of installing a Smart Grid with a suitable energy storage capacity in remote towns is that long distance power lines could be regularly turned off so that maintenance crews could do proper repair work on the power lines and their supports. I would imagine that a major hindrance to a maintenance schedule for long distance power lines is the need to keep the power going through those lines even while they are being repaired. That would be a serious limiting factor on maintenance – I would think. Repairs could only be haphazard and any power poles that needed to be replaced would require an expensive replacement project. If the lines could be regularly powered down – even during off peak times at night when batteries could supply towns  for a few hours – you might be able to schedule major repairs quickly and cheaply.