Mid West residents, businesses plagued by power outages feel forgotten by State Government

Mid West residents whose finances, health and wellbeing have been decimated by widespread power breakdowns are desperate for State Government intervention. Southerlys Tavern owners Callum and Sonia Kerr were among those who have signed a petition launched by the State Opposition in support of an independent inquiry into WA’s regional electricity network. The Dongara tavern has been unable to open countless times in the past 12 months because of unplanned outages. Dongara Foodworks owner Karina Clifford has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in spoiled produce, staff wages and appliances fried by power surges. She has spent a fortune outlaying the store to support generators and solar panels to try to and reduce the cost of power. But Ms Clifford said the worst part about Dongara’s “antiquated” power system was the inability for business owners to claim losses because of unplanned outages. “We lost power for six days after Seroja and we had to spend a lot of money to buy a power generator, but I cant claim that for outages. . . that mechanism for claims is just backwards,” she said. “Hopefully Seroja was a one-off, but it is a Russian roulette.” Following a $30,000 insurance claim related to a “catastrophic” power breakdown eight years ago, Ms Clifford’s insurer pulled its coverage of losses due to unplanned outages. The financial burden of outages may be immense, but Ms Clifford said breakdowns also posed a health risk for many. “Everything in Springfield is on power because there is no water supply out there. So for my 80-year-old mother, if she loses power she can’t use water, so it is a health risk,” she said. “It is diabolical.” To ensure she had access to power in an emergency, Dongara resident of 30 years Beverley Sharp spent $3000 to rewire her home to ensure it was compatible with a generator. But Ms Sharp said the physical and financial demands of running the system are immense for older residents. “Fuel is $1.70 a litre, and I had to get one on wheels because I can’t lift the generator,” she said. “I have to pull it out of the garage, take it round the house to where the power meter is on the other side and then run the cord to it. “Then I have to go and buy fuel in a container and carry that and fill the machine up myself and check the oil. It is not easy.” Ms Sharp is a persistent advocate for reliable access to power for her community, but said she felt her appeals were falling on deaf ears. “People in Perth had outages in December and they are all up in arms about it being hot and not having power for two days but what about us in the country? We have been left behind here,” she said. “The town has gotten bigger and the infrastructure just simply does not meet the requirements of this area. (Western Power) used to come around and clean off the insulators on the power poles, but they don’t do that anymore. “We protest, we complain. . . we have been doing this for years.” In Horrocks, resident Belinda Davis said the frequency and duration of blackouts had increased dramatically since cyclone Seroja. The Davis family has had their generator running for more than 40 hours in the past seven days and more than 100 hours since early December, with outages lasting anywhere between eight and 17.5 hours. “We are actually lucky enough to have a generator but you still can’t use your washing machine, you can’t use your dishwasher and you can’t run the air-conditioning,” she said. There were blackouts in Horrocks on January 26, 28, and 29, but Ms Davis said there have been no more outages since Western Power installed three generators in town this week. She said many locals were now in the process of placing compensation claims, with the State Government offering an $80 payment for each outage longer than 12 hours. “A lot of people around here have been claiming for outages extending over 10 hours and have been approved, which I think is fair because even after six hours your food is spoiled,” she said.