Aust'n 370-km underwater power cable reconnected after six-month outage

The 370-km Bass Strait electricity cable, running along the seabed between Tasmania and mainland Australia has been repaired after being out of commission for six months.

Basslink, the operator of the cable, said in a statement on Wednesday that tests of the cable will be carried out this week and it will be re-buried in "the next few days."

"The Basslink team will shortly commence a range of land-based tests of both the electricity interconnector as well as the fiber optic telecommunications cable, and all associated equipment on either side of Bass Strait," Basslink CEO Malcolm Eccles said.

"(We hope) to return the electricity interconnector and the telecommunications cable service to service before the end of June."

A fault in the cable 100 km off the Tasmanian coast was discovered in December, putting a strain on Hydro Tasmania to produce all the state's energy needs.

The cable runs between the Loy Yang Power Station in south-eastern Victoria and the George Town substation in northern Tasmania and provides excess electricity to Tasmania to cut down on pollution.

Tasmanian Energy Minister Matthew Groom said that the reconnection of the cable "further eases the risks associated with energy supply" and that the cable should return to service earlier than expected.

Last week an energy market analyst estimated the outage of the cable has cost the Tasmanian economy more than 370 million U.S. dollars.

Cable joining experts from Italy were bought in to repair to fix the fault and the boat used to bring the heavy cable - which weighs 60 kilograms per meter - to the surface to make repairs possible came from Noumea.

The Bass Strait cable began operation in April of 2006 and the outage marked the first time the cable had broken down in that time. Endit