Friday, August 18, 2000 Home > National > Article

Airport power that was never meant to fail still isn't fixed

By ROBERT WAINWRIGHT, Transport Writer

Sydney Airport remains on alert over the stability of its aging power supply system after a report yesterday revealed equipment failure which caused the airport's radar to black out six weeks ago still has not been fixed.

Independent experts, employed by the Federal Government after a second power problem on August 1, say officials still have not worked out what happened to the so-called Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) which led to a 10-minute shutdown during evening peak hour.

And they have discovered the entire supply system is sub-standard, a hotchpotch of additions built on top of a system installed in the 1960s.

The Federal Transport Minister, Mr Anderson, tried to restore confidence in the airport's capacity to cope with Olympic traffic, insisting that reliability was "critical" and directing Airservices Australia to upgrade its power supply, including a back-up generator, extra staff and a complete, long-term redesign.

A spokesman for the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, Mr Dan Dwyer, said the report vindicated workforce concerns about cutbacks.

"We've been very lucky to have two critical failures without any injuries or disasters," he said.

"The problems are a result of systemic problems. Staff cuts over the years have taken their toll. The airport doesn't even have a specialist electrical manager any more. He was made redundant last year."

The report, by Sydney consultancy Quiggin and Cook, found a resolution to the power failure on July 6 was a "matter or urgency".

"The UPS problem experienced in the July power failure still needs to be resolved," the report stated.

"We understand that the manufacturer has returned to the site and that there have been tests conducted, however there is still no resolution in regard to what actually occurred to cause the UPS to fail. This resolution is a matter of urgency."

The report went on to say that the air traffic control centre could operate with loss of power to 50 per cent of the equipment "subject to certain operational procedures being subsequently followed".

Mr Anderson, angry at the embarrassing failures which have attracted international attention, released a 10-point plan to fix the problems and said Airservices Australia had agreed to "act urgently" to implement the recommendations of the report.

"The air traffic control system at Sydney Airport has to work all the time. The Airservices board and senior management understands that the Government views the reliability of the Sydney Airport power supply as critical," Mr Anderson said.

"I have directed Airservices Australia to upgrade the power supply system in the longer term so it meets industry best practice for similar critical installations. Sydney Airport has the best air traffic control system in the world, which must be backed up by a first-class power supply.

"Airservices has installed a third back-up generator to provide additional emergency power. Six experienced electrical maintenance staff are available at Sydney Airport and the shift rosters will be extended to cover the entire 6am to 11pm non-curfew period."

A spokesman for the Community and Public Sector Union, Mr Alistair Waters, said: "We are pleased that the minister has instructed Airservices to increase the coverage by maintenance staff at Sydney Airport, but he has not gone far enough." http://www.smh.com.au/news/0008/18/national/national1.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 17, 2000