great article Timee. Cheers! Here's a quote from it:
This is how ETSA Utilities, the privatised delivery business, described the situation: "State-wide, consumption from 820,000 residential and business customers peaked at 3,399 MW at 5pm and stayed at that level as people returned home with the evening temperature above 39 degrees."
The high demand led to equipment failure in an ETSA substation and problems on its feeder system. Eighty of the 40,000 transformers in the metropolitan area suffered fuse failure.
"The main contributor to the fuse issue," says ETSA, "is changes in LOCALISED demand patterns in the past few years as people have installed new air-conditioning, extended their homes and bought new electrical equipment. The changes only become apparent in extreme conditions, requiring load re-balancing on these transformers.?
