Threat of major blackout due to degraded cable

A third of the power supply to the North Island is under threat after Transpower shut down an important section of the Cook Strait cable because it was so degraded it could not be insured against "catastrophic failure".

Nine out of 15 major pieces of equipment used to transfer power across one of two sections of the Cook Strait cable have serious faults which could lead to catastrophic disaster.

Now one would have thought this situation could have been averted by implementing a realistic R & M programme and programming for replacement ... sort of basic really.