Bungaroo Creek Lightning Resilience Study

At the commencement of this project Rio Tinto Iron Ore was in the process of commissioning a new 33kV overhead power line to power water extraction bores and associated pump stations in an area known as Bungaroo Creek. This water source is a crucial part of the West Pilbara water supply scheme operated by the Water Corporation of Western Australia. The scheme will supply large volumes of drinking water to Karratha via the existing Millstream supply pipelines. Due to the importance of this system, it is crucial that the supply of power to the entire water system is maintained. Some concerns have been raised regarding the potential performance of this overhead line under heavy lightning conditions. The aim of this project was to analyse the performance of this line under lightning conditions, providing means of improving the performance from 1 outage per year to 1 outage every 3 years.