It’s been a busy start to the summer months with Western Power network controllers and crews working hard to keep homes and businesses powered in extreme weather conditions over the holiday period.
We worked quickly to repair damage to the network from recent summer weather events and multiple bushfires along with several car vs pole incidents and other equipment related outages.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve repaired and replaced over 40 transmission poles, more than 200 distribution poles and our teams travelled over 220,000km patrolling network infrastructure to ensure safety before restoration.
Executive Manager of Asset Operations Zane Christmas said every effort was taken to safely restore power as soon as practical in sometimes challenging conditions.
“We work all year-round to upgrade and prepare the network for summer conditions and bushfires which has meant it has coped well with increased demand over the festive period,” he said.
“We resource accordingly to ensure we’re equipped to respond to weather events as quickly and safely as possible and communicate timely and essential information to the community,” he said.
“For example, on Christmas morning, a bushfire in Dalyellup damaged network infrastructure disrupting power to around 2,000 customers. Our crews worked quickly to develop a temporary solution to restore power with permanent repairs completed later that week.
“On New Year’s eve crews worked to repair multiple damaged assets in Spearwood after a car accident damaged a transmission pole. Our network operations team backfed power to around 2,460 customers and as significant and complex repairs were required, crews installed a backup generator to restore the remaining 140 customers that evening before completing more lengthy repairs.
“A recent bushfire in Dandaragan and Yathroo damaged infrastructure impacting power supply to 33 homes and businesses and crews worked in challenging conditions to repair nine poles and restore power.
“We thank the community for their patience and understanding while we work to get their power back on during any outage.”
As the summer months continue we would like to remind people that if you see a fallen power line, please stay eight metres away and Make The Safe Call to Western Power on the emergency 24/7 number 13 13 51 so that emergency response crews can attend the hazard to make the area safe.