The 2016 South Australia Blackout
On 28 September 2016, South Australia: Storm damaged transmission towers, and a wave of wind farms disconnecting on tighter than expected settings, cut off the whole state in seconds.
Key Facts
- The storm and blackout happened on 28 September 2016.
- 22 transmission towers on two lines were destroyed by tornadoes.
- About 850,000 South Australian customers lost power.
- The state was cut off from the rest of the grid within seconds.
What Happened
A severe storm crossed South Australia on 28 September 2016, spawning tornadoes that destroyed 22 transmission towers on two separate lines, minutes apart. The resulting voltage disturbances reached wind farms elsewhere in the state, which disconnected under protection settings that tripped sooner than the grid operator expected.
The rapid loss of that generation overloaded the single remaining interconnector to the rest of Australia's grid, which then also tripped, islanding South Australia entirely. Almost the whole state, about 850,000 customers, lost power within seconds; some regional areas were without electricity for several days while transmission towers were rebuilt.
The blackout became a byword in Australian energy debates about wind power, though the investigations that followed found the immediate cause was storm damage and generator protection settings, not wind power as a source in itself.
Cause
Storm damage to transmission towers, followed by generator protection settings and loss of the interconnector
Researched independently from public reporting, not from this site's own data. Source: Wikipedia: 2016 South Australian blackout.