GESA ADMITS POWER CUT WAS DUE TO “OVER LOAD” ON THE GRID

Staff reporter THE electricity company GESA confirmed yesterday that Monday's power failure which knocked out supplies to the whole of Majorca and several parts of Minorca, was due to “an overload at a specific point on the network caused by the influx of an unusual amount of reactive energy” at one of the Son Orlandis transformers. This triggered a chain reaction in the other electricity stations. In a communiqué, the company acknowledged that investigations carried out concluded that, at a time of particularly high demand, the “unforeseen influx of reactive energy” added to the “already high load that Transformer No. 1 was supporting at the Son Orlandis subsidiary station. As a consequence, the automatic failsafe system tripped into operation, disconnecting it from the network”. GESA added that, as a result of the heavy burden that Transformer No. 1 was supporting, the load was redistributed to other points of the network. “A few seconds later the disconnection caused by the triggering of the failsafe devices at the second Son Orlandis, Son Reus and Valldurgent transformers brought the whole system tumbling down without a chance to trip into the emergency energy reserve.” This chain of events produced system frequency destabilization. Three groups of power generators at Es Murterar were affected, finally resulting in shutdown. For several minutes, “the main part of the north-east sector of Majorca's grid remained supplied with what remained of existing power in the system. GESA confirmed that the Son Orlandis Transformer Number 1 receives periodic corrective maintenance. These “check ups” are mandatory and as of last Monday, had produced no “anomalies”, even after an “exhaustive” revision. The first of hundreds of claims of compensation from local businesses have already started arriving at GESA's central office in Palma and the company has made it clear that each claim will be dealt with individually.