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MELBOURNE - Electricity crews have restored a major transmission line cut by a bushfire yesterday, which plunged more than 200,000 Victorian homes into darkness and caused road and public transport chaos.
As temperatures peaked above 40C yesterday, power supplies were cut to Melbourne, Geelong and a large swathe of northern and eastern Victoria when the Tatong bushfire, near Benalla, tripped twin 330 kiloVolt powerlines about 4pm (AEDT) yesterday.
The lines are the main inter-connector between Victoria and NSW on the national electricity grid and supply power from NSW to Victoria during days of peak demand, including days of intense heat.
Louisa Graham, spokeswoman for power company SP Ausnet, which operates major transmission lines in Victoria, said electricity crews arrived at the fire ground about 11.30pm yesterday and restored the inter-connector an hour later.
"There is a system inbuilt to protect the lines in the face of a hazard and unfortunately the smoke was so thick and the fire was so intense that the lines failed," she told AAP.
Normal power supplies were available to Victoria once again, with a forecast top temperature of 37C in Melbourne today.
There was a record demand for electricity as Victoria sweltered yesterday, spokesman Paul Price of national electricity grid supervisor NEMMCO said.
Power supplies were cut shortly after 4pm, at the height of the demand.
"It was a day of extreme electricity demand and the bushfires led to the tripping of the major transmission line between Victoria and NSW so that we weren't able to draw on that power as we normally do," Mr Price said.
"It wasn't that there wasn't enough capacity, there was an inability to transport it."
The blackout caused about 1,200 traffic signals across the Melbourne and Geelong metropolitan areas to fail, a VicRoads spokeswoman said.
The power failure affected the entire train network and there could still be delays tomorrow morning.
"It is certainly hit us really hard," a spokeswoman for suburban train company Connex said.
"It has been the worst day for train services in a very long time."
Train services should be back to normal today, the spokeswoman said.
- AAP
