Scottish Affairs Committee - A Robust Grid for 21st Century ScotlandSupplementary written evidence submitted by Alastair Redman, Sub-Postmaster, Isle of Islay
POWER CUTS IN THE PORTNAHAVEN/PORT WEMYSS AREA 2010/11/12
Recent times stated (below) are more accurate as the problem of power supply to the area deteriorated to the point where it is currently not fit for purpose.
All the additions in italics are taken from SSE’s own records. While there is a degree of agreement there are also significant differences as well as more cuts than previously recorded.
|
Date |
Power off from/till |
Weather |
|
2010 |
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September 14th |
16.30–17.30 “broken line” |
Not windy |
|
October |
Line between Jura and Islay breaks—setting off many cuts and power fluctuations |
weather irrelevant to what happened with the power supply. |
|
November |
In the small hours of one night, Mr Ian Turner counted over 20 small cuts. Power supply stretched by very cold spell which began towards the end of November and lasted until almost the end of December |
SSE agree that supply struggled for 6 months |
|
2011 |
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January 11th |
23.00—not sure |
Windy—near gale |
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January 19th |
00.31–01.18 Islay running on local Power Station—generator failure |
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February 12th |
02.28–09.10 Faulty transformer at Port Wemyss |
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March 19th |
09.00–12.30 Planned outage |
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May 19th |
02.14–04.00 Grid fault affecting Lochgilphead, Islay and part of Kintyre |
|
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May 23rd |
10.00am—rest of day |
Violent storm 11 |
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May 24th |
11.02–11.12 Faulty transformer |
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|
May 27th |
afternoon 15.29–17.28 Faulty transformer |
not windy |
|
June 6th |
20.00–01.00 19.46–00.42 (7 June) Islay on local generation—fault on generator cooling system |
not windy |
|
June 10th |
12.50–01.45 12.52–13.36 Loss of local generation—fault not found generation restored |
thundery showers |
|
July 1st |
22.25–23.55 22.48–23.51 Mainland fault on 33kv network supplying Jura and Islay |
little wind,- no rain |
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July 8th |
12.33–12.38 Transient fault—network switched back on |
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|
September 12th |
12.50–13.42 then again at 16.30 for a few seconds. |
Force 10 storm |
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October 24th |
12.59–13.40 Transient fault supplies restored |
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October 29th |
12.41–12.42 Transient fault |
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November 1st |
17.25–20.15 17.23–19.14 11kv overhead line fault Bruichladdich |
dry and bright |
|
November 2nd |
22.05—23.15 22.07–23.12 Transient fault supplies restored |
not windy |
|
November 19th |
22.41 for a minute Auto restoration |
not windy |
|
November 21st |
09.45–10.30 |
showery |
|
November 24th |
09.50–10.30 09.50–10.27 Gales caused damage to mainland 33kv supply to Jura and Islay |
wet and windy but not a gale |
|
December 5th |
21.10—21.12 (flickered for a couple of minutes before) |
Windy in frequent squalls |
|
December 7th/8th/9th |
Multiple interruptions due to severe weather |
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|
December 8th |
As an example here is the pattern for the morning: |
Violent storm 11 |
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December 13th |
Power off from 16.00–19.00 |
Wet and stormy |
|
Boxing Day |
Off for 15 mins. |
Strong winds |
|
December 28th |
Power off from 19.00 until 08.10 the following morning (the 29th). |
Stormy weather |
|
December 28th/29th/30th |
Multiple interruptions due to severe weather |
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December 31st |
13.55 until 17.45 |
dull, drizzly- calm |
|
2012 |
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|
January 2nd |
19.25 for a minute |
Wet and windy |
|
January 3rd |
Prior to the power going off for almost 4 days at 05.30, there were again many small cuts—at least a dozen—from approx 03.00. Many lasted barely a minute. Each time the power went off and came back on the clock would flash and the radio squawk. |
Very violent storm—winds in excess of 100mph. |
|
January 3rd/4th 5th/6th |
Multiple interruptions due to severe weather |
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|
January 4th |
Power off all day—water off too. |
wet and windy |
|
January 5th |
Power off all day—water on weakly then off again until the evening. Power came on across the bay in mid-afternoon then was off again several times. No hint of power on King Street and Port Wemyss |
Calm night |
|
January 6th |
Power came back on at 14.50. |
Squally winds—not strong. |
|
January 7th |
Flickering on and off many times between 19.00 and 23.30. |
Damp- not windy |
|
January 8th |
10.20–10.35 |
not windy |
|
January 15th |
Power off at 9.30 for less than a minute |
not windy |
|
January 21st |
Off at 09.54 preceded by a surge*, on briefly at 10.05 with another surge, then back on at 10.41. 09.54–11.50 Tree fell onto main 33kV line supplying Islay |
Gale force 8 |
|
January 23rd |
09.25–09.45 09.24–10.14 Tree fell onto main 33kV line supplying Islay |
not very windy |
N.B.
During one of many conversations with a “SSE helpline worker,” it emerged that the records they have of our power outages do not match our own. Not only do the timings of some of the major power cuts not coincide, they have no awareness of the myriad of tiny breaks we get during many an event.
*Surge reported to “Shane” at SSE during phone call at 10.00am.
All the information in italics kindly supplied by Stephen Fletcher, Performance Manager, Argyll and West Highlands SSE, following a conversation between myself and Donald MacKinnon (engineer SSE). In the covering letter Mr Fletcher says that not all short interruptions are recorded and that the automatic operation of safety switches may not be included.
30 January 2011