Great consequences resulted from minor negligence
A collision by a crane to the 500kV transmission line has caused a blackout in the whole South of Vietnam and some areas in Cambodia. This seldom problem has caused serious damages to the economy, society, but also raised high an alarming bell on violation of the high voltage power grid’s passage and concerns on secure protection of the North-South 500kV transmission line.
The high voltage power grid is always in danger
“Any telephone bell rings unusually in midnight will cause a sweat, concerning that failures occur somewhere” – this is a general confidence by the high voltage power grid operators. The reason is that most of failures are sudden and consequences are severe. Typically, only a collision by a top of tree to the 500kV transmission line caused by a driver’s negligence has resulted in a paralytic traffic, disordered life, a deadlock of production and business activities in over 20 provinces and cities. A wink occurrence of failure led to a half-day repair of it by the power sector. The economic damages can be statistic, but the social consequences can not be calculated.
According to Mr. Vu Ngoc Minh – Vice President of National Power Transmission Corporation (EVNNPT), such failure caused a large scale blackout was the 1st time, but there were not few smaller-scale failures in the high voltage power grid. In 2012, in the Northern transmission grid alone, there were 4 failures caused breakdown of underground cable or electric discharge in the 220kV transmission line connected Hai Phong Thermal Power Plant to 220kV Dinh Vu substation (2 times), the 220kV transmission line connected Pha Lai Thermal Power Plant to the 220kV Dong Hoa substation, the 220kV Vinh Yen – Soc Son transmission line, which led to a damage of many tens of VND billions for recovery, without calculation of damages caused by power supply interruption.
There were not only failures caused by vehicles, but failures by other violations occur regularly. In the 500kV Son La – Hiep Hoa transmission line, section run through Thai Nguyen province, there were 10 big failures because of kites stucked on the line causing an electric discharge, which result in many hour power cut-off for repair. This caused a damage of hundreds of VND million each failure. In 2012, the Central Highland transmission line included 31 failures, mainly due to the protection forest fire, slash and burn fire. The Southern one included 22 failures, in which the failures caused by violations of secure passage account for 36.4%.
Failures caused by “kite players” are the obsession by “transmission line operators”Seeking the reasons All the above-mentioned failures shown that people have poor self-awareness and acknowledgement on regulations related to the secure passage of power grid. Playing a kite is typical, the pleasure by “kite players” are the obsession by “transmission line operators”. It is difficult for power sector is that it can not forbid people to play kite because they play kite outside the secure passage. Only when the kite line is broken, it attached to the in-operation transmission grid, the clear consequences are found. In fact, there were many unfortunate accidents occurred to the kite players such as heavy burn or deaths, together with the electric discharge in transmission grid, which result in big damages to the economy.
Besides, many projects constructed within the power grid secure passage occur in many areas. Despite the power sector deploys many solutions for protecting power grid passage, but it can not cover all. The main reasons are that punishment sanctions are insufficient. The involvement by local authorities is inadequate because it is considered as the responsibilities of power sector. Whereas, as an enterprise, the power sector is responsible for protection of power grid, but when violations are found, only propaganda and encouragement are applied. In case violations are deliberate by people, the power sector has to rely on legislations and authorities. The settlement is carried out in view of education, because compensation forced to people is impossible because the damages are normally huge. This significant reason, together with insufficient awareness on the danger of high voltage power grid makes many people “ready to play with the Death”.