Exploded transformer replaced within three days
23.05.2006Wien
The transformer in the VERBUND high voltage grid which exploded last Thursday and almost caused a blackout has, within three days and under mobilisation of all forces, been replaced with a spare transformer. As announced today by VERBUND-Austrian Power Grid AG (APG), the east-west connection in the APG Grid has been fully operational again since Sunday afternoon.
At the same time, however, APG warns that the danger of a large-area blackout in Austria continues to prevail, albeit latently. The only measure that can remedy the risk is rapid implementation of the 380 kv transmission lines in Styria and Salzburg. A risk also remains in Zemm am Ziller: Repairing the damaged transformer will take at least six months, and there is currently no other spare part to replace the spare transformer now in use.
It is only thanks to the fast reaction and appropriate measures on the part of APG that the transformer explosion in the power plant system Zemm-Ziller, the cause of which, together with the supplier, is still being investigated, did not lead to an extensive blackout in Austria. Thus an emergency start of the Malta storage power plants in Carinthia was effected; also, the transmission lines that were at that point in time in the process of inspection were switched on.
It is only thanks to the fast reaction and appropriate measures on the part of APG that the transformer explosion in the power plant system Zemm-Ziller, the cause of which, together with the supplier, is still being investigated, did not lead to an extensive blackout in Austria. Thus an emergency start of the Malta storage power plants in Carinthia was effected; also, the transmission lines that were at that point in time in the process of inspection were switched on.