Pearl beset with further minor problems

**Ally** · 11-05-2006, 08:09 AM

First a section of her hull sank following a collision involving the barge that it was being carried on. Now a widespread powercut has caused a problem with getting her out for sea trials...

Quote:

Papenburg, Germany- Power cuts across Europe prevented the tricky task of nudging a newly-built cruise liner, the Norwegian Pearl, down a narrow German stream to the open sea early Sunday. The dockyard had hoped to shift the 294-metre vessel, which can accommodate 2,400 passengers, down the Ems river during the night. But with electricity companies desperate to restore power in Europe, a high-voltage line that crosses the river could not be switched off.

A spokeswoman for German power generator Eon said Sunday in Munich: "We still don't know exactly what caused the cuts." A full analysis of what happened could take several days.

The Saturday night power cuts had a chain-reaction effect as far away as Spain.

Since the line overhanging the Ems was considered a danger, the ship's delivery run was cancelled at 11 pm Saturday. The inland dockyard in Papenburg specializes in building luxury passenger vessels, but it is difficult to tug them to the open sea.

"It would have been too much of a risk to the ship to take it under a live high-tension line," said dockyard spokesman Peter Hackmann. The operation would resume in the daytime Sunday.

The vessel is set for delivery to Norwegian Cruise Line in Southampton, England at the end of this month.

(German Press Association)

**Ally** · 11-06-2006, 06:11 AM

It appears that the movement of Pearl down the River Ems actually caused the widespread blackout across many parts of Europe...

Quote:

German electricity company E.ON has confirmed it was to blame for the blackout that left swathes of western Europe without power at the weekend.

E.ON said its grid had overloaded after it switched off an electricity line over the river Ems to allow a cruise ship to safely pass through.

The knock-on power cut left millions without electricity across Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Despite politicians' anger, E.ON said Europe's power grid was in good shape.

'Knock-on effect'

"I am grateful that the situation was not worse than it turned out because E.ON caused it," said E.ON board member Klaus-Dieter Maubach.

"The trigger of the breakdown in supply was that we had to take a line out of operation and that the knock-on effect from that loss spread to other lines which later cut out."

Mr Maubach added that European grid operators enjoyed good co-operation, meaning Saturday night's power cuts only lasted for about an hour.

Yet politicians from the affected countries have called for the electricity companies to invest more in their networks.

"We have known for a while that there are bottlenecks on the power grids and that the utilities have not ensured that the grids are being expanded," said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

Italy's prime minister has called for Europe to have a central power authority.

Romano Prodi said there was a "contradiction" in having a unified power network but no central authority.

Past examples

Saturday's power cut started in the German city of Cologne before quickly spreading.

Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Croatia were also affected, with the cuts even reaching as far as Morocco.

The worst recent power blackout struck Italy in 2003, plunging the country into darkness for 18 hours between 28 and 29 September.

The previous month, a similar power cut had struck the north-eastern US and Canada.

BBC NEWS | Business | German firm admits blackout fault

**Ally** · 11-06-2006, 11:47 AM

Is the power going fail right across mainland Europe again tonight.....

Quote:

Brace yourself, western Europe. German power company E.on, which plunged more than 10 million people into darkness on Saturday, is about to turn the line off again. It will be the second try at moving a new cruise ship to the North Sea.

E.on, one of Europe's biggest power companies, is again going to turn off a power line in northern Germany on Monday night after the first switch-off -- to allow the safe passage of a ship on Saturday -- caused a power blackout across Europe.

E.on had turned off the 380,000 volt line over the river Ems on Saturday night as a safety precaution to let newly built cruise ship "Norwegian Pearl" pass underneath on its way to the North Sea from the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg where it was built.

The switch-off, though routine, led to an energy shortfall in the German power grid which caused a chain reaction of outages across western Europe. E.on responded by switching the power line back on which forced the "Norwegian Pearl" to abandon its trip and return to dock.

A spokesman for the shipyard said it was much too risky for ships higher than 60 meters (195 feet) to pass underneath an operating power line. "A spark could fly or the lines could be sagging," he said. There must always be a safety gap of five meters between the ship and the line.

A second attempt will be made to move the ship on Monday evening at around 7 p.m. local time and E.on will be switching off the power line again then.

A member of E.on's management board, Klaus-Dieter Maubach, said Saturday's power line switch-off had been the root cause of the blackout. "That was basically the origin of the supply outage -- that we had to take a line out of operation and that this led to pressures on other lines which later overstretched the network," Maubach told German television.

The company is investigating the blackout and doesn't believe the power line was the only causer. It has frequently been switched off to let tall ships pass.

(Das Spiegel)