Power Supply

Volcanic ashfall can quickly lead to the widespread loss of electricity impacting communities, businesses, and critical life-support services. The generation, transmission and distribution, and substation components of a modern power system are vulnerable to different and specific ash-induced impacts, depending on the equipment at each phase of power delivery.

The most commonly reported problems are:

1. Supply outages from insulator flashover caused by ash contamination
2. Disruption of generation facilities
3. Controlled outages during ash cleaning
4. Abrasion and corrosion of exposed equipment
5. Line (conductor) breakage due to ash loading.