Mid West goes more than 2500 hours without power this summer, with 6960-plus claims made

Power outage hot spots across the Mid West have experienced more than 2500 hours of blackouts this summer, it was revealed in Parliament last week. The data shows the cause and duration for each interruption in Eneabba, Mullewa, Dongara, Jurien Bay, Yuna, Northampton, Perenjori, Morawa, Gregory, Nabawa, Mingenew, Port Denison, Horrocks, Cervantes, Leeman, Green Head and Three Springs from November 1 until February 22. The total blackout hours came to 2502. Dongara recorded 381.64 hours of outages — the highest of all Mid West blackout hotspots and the equivalent of more than three hours a day without power. Next worst was Northampton, which spent 239 hours without power, or an average of two hours a day. Horrocks, Perenjori and Cervantes also had many outages, with each town without power for 210, 198 and 199 hours respectively. There were 6961 claims made for compensation in relation to these incidents, which were caused by everything from lightning and equipment failure to wind and birds. On the back of this, Member for Moore Shane Love presented Parliament with an e-petition with more than 2000 signatures in support of an independent inquiry into the regional electricity network. Mr Love said many residents had sweltered through the summer without power for extended periods, leaving them feeling like “second-class citizens”. “Frequent outages have seen hospitality businesses lose thousands of dollars of stock without compensation, doctors forced to throw out lifesaving COVID vaccines, and vulnerable residents being left without communications or air conditioning for days,” he said. The Member for the Agricultural Region Martin Aldridge also led a debate in Parliament last week to discuss the prospect of implementing the review. But the motion was not supported and an amended version was instead passed, with the State Government agreeing to apologise to regional residents affected by the widespread Christmas outage and complete an independent review of this incident — a review which was launched earlier this year. Mr Aldridge said the investigation into the Christmas outage did not go far enough to address the power reliability issues in regional WA. “This motion addressed the inequity that the Government’s Christmas power outage review failed to do, recognising the challenges faced in regional WA, where power outages are constant, lengthy, and damaging for communities and businesses,” he said. “Unfortunately, the government chose not to support this motion, watering it down with amendments and removing its regional focus.” Mr Aldridge also slammed Agricultural Region MLC Darren West’s suggestion that Mid West residents make the “very small investment in a generator” to reduce the cost of outage-related damages. “Telling families to invest thousands of dollars in power generation shows a contempt for regional residents and demonstrates how out of touch this government is with the high cost-of-living pressures many are facing,” he said. The Minister for Emergency Services Stephen Dawson said “a great deal of work” was being conducted to improve power reliability across the Mid West. “There has been an investment for a Northampton feeder, which is the replacement and addition of pole top switches, fuses, protections devices and sectionalisers. These, I am told will improve the remote operation of the feeder,” he said. “They will also allow the crews to work faster to identify issues and restore power in a much quicker fashion and generally provide reliability improvements to local residents and, indeed, local businesses. “Of course, Northampton is a family community. An additional high-voltage protection device installed on the line will better demarcate the off-shooting Horrocks and Port Gregory lines from the line to Northampton.” The findings of the Christmas outage review were due to be delivered by March 14, but Mr Dawson said the results were not yet ready to be tabled in Parliament. BREAKOUT Total hours without power in top five Mid West towns Dongara — 381 Northampton — 239 Horrocks — 210 Perenjori — 198 Cervantes — 199