Sydney, Australia, , 2002 - ABB Australia, part of the global power and automation technology company, has been lauded by Sydney Water (SW) and the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) for its outstanding response to the bush fire emergency in New South Wales over Christmas and the New Year.
As the SW and SCA filtration, sewage treatment and pumping plants around the Warragamba Dam and lower Blue Mountains west and south of Sydney were progressively damaged and then outed by encroaching infernos, the ABB team was able to restore power and repair damaged control systems.
They sourced four of the big diesel generators and had them brought in to the area under police escort from Smithfield to Warragamba. With the help of Integral Energy, they were able to restore HV power within 40 hours of loss of power on Christmas Day. These generators kept the key areas of filtration, sewage treatment and pumping in operation, even during the worst of the emergency from Boxing Day until after New Year’s.
"While most of the surviving assets were working (one HV substation was lost), the computer cabling had been damaged in the fires," explained ABB’s contract manager to Sydney Water, John Viselli. "Our technicians worked round the clock to bypass the computer programs and get essential controls back into operation.
"In many cases our biggest problem was getting access to the plants. We certainly had great support from the emergency services, but some of our team were actually putting fires out on the power poles during the worst of the crisis. I am proud to say that none of the team working on the rectification work was injured.
Ian Tanner, the SCA’s acting chief executive, has written to ABB to thank John and his team for their "excellent response in our time of need."
"ABB’s primary focus of adding value to its customers has gained a new benchmark," said Mark Southey, Senior Vice President of ABB Australia’s Asset Management and Service Division. "We are proud of our team and their performance and relieved at the safe and satisfactory outcome."
A formal recognition ceremony is being planned by ABB, Sydney Water and SCA will take place in the next few weeks probably at Warragamba Dam.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a global leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering their environmental impact. ABB has 160,000 employees in more than 100 countries.