Basslink calls on Hydro Tasmania to resume paying cable fees

Monday, 5 Dec 2016 08:47:50

The BassLink cable links Tasmania and Victoria. (ABC News)

Basslink has asked Hydro Tasmania to resume paying usage fees for its undersea cable immediately, after independent testing found no cause for the fault that shut down the cable last year.

The undersea electricity cable — the Basslink Interconnector — connects Tasmania to Victoria and shut down for six months from December 2015 due to a rupture the size of a human thumb.

The outage pitched Basslink into dispute with its only customer Hydro Tasmania, which disagreed with the cable owner's claim the fault was a "force majeure" event, or unavoidable catastrophe.

Since then, Hydro Tasmania has not been paying Basslink the multi-million-dollar facility fee for the cable.

Basslink sent the faulty section of cable to the United Kingdom and Italy for analysis by cable experts, who were ultimately unable to determine the precise reason for the fault.

Today Basslink released a statement saying Hydro should begin paying the facility fee immediately.

"We have provided the report in its entirety to Hydro Tasmania and the Tasmanian Government and trust it will provide them with sufficient expert evidence to accept that the fault was a force majeure event," chief executive Malcolm Eccles said.

"Given this, we would like Hydro Tasmania to recommence meeting its contractual obligations to Basslink immediately."

Basslink said there was no evidence of pre-existing mechanical damage, and the cable had been operating within its thermal rating.

AustraliaPlus

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Basslink calls on Hydro Tasmania to resume paying cable fees

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