Trustpower is pleased to confirm that its assets at Snowtown 1 and Snowtown 2 were not damaged as a result of the extreme weather event in South Australia on Wednesday 28 September 2016. While both Snowtown 1 and 2 were offline for a short period, both have returned to service.

This once in fifty year storm resulted in failure of the South Australian power system following significant physical damage to the transmission system.

The South Australian market remains suspended by Ministerial direction until it is determined normal operations can be resumed. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is dispatching available generation to meet demand and system security requirements. This means some constraints are being imposed on wind farms, including Snowtown 1 and Snowtown 2. The revenue losses incurred to date while despatch is limited are not considered material.

It is currently unclear how long repairs to the transmission system will take and when the market suspension will be lifted.

A preliminary AEMO report indicates that multiple transmission system faults were followed by disconnection of several wind arms and overload on the interconnector with Victoria prior to the State wide blackout.

It should be noted that all wind farms are tested on commissioning. Both Snowtown 1 and Snowtown 2 were tested and have performed as expected in previous storm events, however this storm event was far worse than previously experienced.

Trustpower is co-operating fully with the AEMO investigation and we continue to analyse the detailed data from the event.
As a result of this event Trustpower will not seek the final court order for the demerger on 6 October 2016 and is reviewing the timeline for demerger completion.

Trustpower Limited (NZX: TPW) is a 51% subsidiary of Infratil Limited.

Marko Bogoievski
Chief Executive Officer
Infratil Limited