There are around 9,000 customers currently without power across parts of the Midwest and Wheatbelt regions, predominantly due to the bushfires in Warradarge, Eneabba, Mogumber and Bindoon. Impacted areas include parts of Moora, Dalwallinu, Wongan Hills, Dandaragan, New Norcia, Badgingarra, Jurien Bay, Cervantes, Green Head and Leeman.
The evolving bushfire situation and forecast high fire weather conditions in the area mean additional power outages across the region are possible and outage numbers may fluctuate.
We’re continuing to work closely with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) to safely access firegrounds where possible to assess damage and undertake repairs. Initial reports and patrols have found 80 transmission and distribution poles in the Jurien Bay/Eneabba area and over 200 assets in Mogumber and surrounds have been damaged by fire and will require repair or replacement.
Crews from our South and Metro regions have been dispatched to support response efforts. Teams are working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible, including:
- Reconfiguring the network to isolate damage and backfeed where possible
- Engaging additional contractor crews
- Deploying emergency response generators and high voltage injection units
- Conducting helicopter patrols
We’re communicating with impacted customers via SMS with updates, including estimated restoration times and response efforts. We anticipate the majority of customers impacted in Moora and Jurien Bay will be restored today. Due to significant damage to the network, including multiple transmission lines, backfeeding is limited and some customers may remain without power for an extended period. Those affected customers will be contacted via SMS so they can plan accordingly.
We’re continuing to work with Telstra, who have deployed generators to ensure essential telecommunications services are available for the community.
We thank the community for their understanding and patience as we work to address the faults and restore power.
Jurien Bay and surrounds
We have commenced restoration in Jurien Bay via the high voltage injection unit (HVIU) installed today to support parts of the townsite, and we anticipate the majority of customers will be back on by 7 pm this evening. Our Network Control team is also isolating and backfeeding power supply where possible to some customers ahead of time.
We have identified around 80 damaged poles in the area that have impacted power supply to the townsite and require repair or replacement.
HVIUs connect several emergency response generators together, monitored and managed remotely, to power a larger area than would normally be possible when using a single generator.
Additionally, six Emergency Response Generators are being used to support parts of Cervantes and surrounds. We’ve worked closely with local emergency and community services to target and support essential services as a priority.