A threat to the electronics industry... from kites.

According to statistics from the Nam Dinh Power Company, since the beginning of the year, the entire province of Nam Dinh has experienced 60 incidents of power grid damage caused by people flying kites, resulting in significant losses.

The kites, including some exceptionally large ones that caused electrical problems, were confiscated by the Nam Dinh Power Company. Photo: Tat Thao

Mr. Pham Thanh Lich - Head of Safety Inspection Department (Nam Dinh Power Company) - said that electrical incidents caused by kites are very diverse: Kites get caught in power lines; kite strings pull power lines together, causing short circuits; kite strings get wrapped around busbars and switches of transformer substations... causing short circuits, broken wires, explosions of protective equipment, transformer fires leading to widespread power outages...

The most recent incident occurred at 5:20 PM on May 31st. A large kite, after being released into the sky, wobbled and struck power lines, causing a short circuit and a fire in a 5,600kVA transformer at the Co Le substation (Truc Ninh district). This incident resulted in a power outage affecting over 20,000 customers in seven communes. Because the incident occurred just before the high school graduation exams, the Nam Dinh Power Company had to dispatch a transformer from Yen Yen district to the affected substation for immediate repairs. Subsequently, the Nam Dinh Power Company spent over 1 billion VND to repair the damaged transformer.

According to the Nam Dinh Power Company, power outages caused by kites have been on the rise in the past two years. In 2013, the province experienced 200 incidents involving the power grid due to kite flying. In early November 2013, a kite nearly 8 meters long got entangled in a 35kV medium-voltage power line, causing a fire in a 25,000kVA transformer at the 110kV Nam Truc substation, resulting in nearly 15 billion VND in damages.

Tran Mai (compiled)