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AER home page -> Monitoring, reporting and enforcement -> Investigations -> No. 3–Investigation into the events of 16 January 2007

No. 3–Investigation into the events of 16 January 2007

On 11 September 2007, the AER issued a final report on its investigation into the events of 16 January, when bushfires in the north east of Victoria caused fully loaded 330kV transmission lines between Victoria and New South Wales to trip. The event also caused transmission lines between South Australia and Victoria to trip, resulting in the separation of the national power system into three electrical islands.

A major imbalance between supply and demand followed, which led to the activation of the Victorian automatic under-frequency load shedding scheme. Around 2200MW of load was shed. Load was fully restored within four hours.

A copy of the final report, together with follow-up letters from NEMMCO, and the AER response is available for download.

Outcomes:

Reclassification of non-credible contingency events

  • AER to propose Rule change to clause 4.2.3(f)

Load shedding

  • AER recommends formalising communication obligation in arrangements between NEMMCO, JSSCs and NSPs regarding load shedding
  • AER to undertake compliance auditing of SP AusNet’s protection and control systems

Load restoration

  • NEMMCO to report to the market by end 2007 on improved load restoration procedures and training AER to propose Rule change to clause 3.9.2

Setting dispatch price to VoLL

  • NEMMCO to provide an undertaking regarding compliance with clause 3.9.3

Intervention pricing

  • NEMMCO to provide an undertaking regarding compliance with clause 3.9.3

Compliance with technical performance standards

  • AER will recommend to the Victorian and Queensland governments that technical standards derogations be removed from the NER
  • AER to undertake auditing of technical performance compliance programs

Provision of FCAS

  • AER to follow–up with participant
  • AER to undertake auditing of generators’ FCAS performance

Infringement notices

  • The AER issued infringement notices on SECV

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