The Lake King townsite will soon be supported with back-up power supply during unplanned outages.
Western Power has developed and will soon be implementing a new back-up power solution to improve reliability for much of the Lake King townsite during extended unplanned outages.
Western Power Executive Manager of Asset Management Gair Landsborough said the solution, which includes a battery, would provide stable back-up supply, reducing the duration of unplanned outages for homes and businesses.
“The location of Lake King means that the power lines that feed the town are spread over a large geographical area which is exposed to harsh environmental conditions, and in the event of storms means longer outages as crews often need to travel long distances to conduct patrols before repair,” he said.
“The new battery solution will provide a back-up power supply during these instances as well as maintain local network stability during fine, mild weather when there’s excess output from rooftop solar.
“The solution includes a battery, which mean excess rooftop solar can be stored and drawn on later when needed.
“It includes an automatic changeover switch enabling the battery to be immediately turned on when a fault is detected on the feeder line.”
The back-up power solution for Lake King is part Western Power’s Regional Connect Program, where tailored reliability solutions are being tested in targeted local areas across the network based on environment, demand and local context.
Mr Landsborough said the Lake King approach was new and aimed to improve reliability for small clusters of customers in regional towns.
"Through Regional Connect we’re working to test combinations of innovative solutions such as remotely controlled devices and network reconfiguration to improve regional reliability.”
The back-up solution is on schedule to be delivered by mid 2026.