Tens of thousands left without power in Mid West during latest outage

Mid West residents and businesses are at breaking point following a relentless series of power outages which culminated in a region-wide blackout affecting tens of thousands of people at the weekend. Late sleepers in Geraldton were forced to wait for their morning coffee after power was cut to about 18,000 homes at 8.45am on Sunday. Most properties in the Mid West city were reconnected by 12pm, but more than 1330 homes and businesses elsewhere in the region were still relying on generators on Monday. A Western Power spokesperson said the outages were caused by hot weather conditions, with Geraldton airport recording a high of 44.7C on Saturday. But temperatures had dropped by Sunday and hit a maximum of just 28.2C during the outage. Geraldton has not seen an outage of the similar scale since cyclone Seroja left thousands without power for days, but other local government areas have been experiencing blackouts on a weekly basis for months. 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 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 can’t 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.” MORE NEWS 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. Ms Davis 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. Residents, business owners and local government representatives aired their concerns with Minister for Energy Bill Johnston when he was in Kalbarri last week for the official launch of the town’s solar and wind-powered microgrid — the largest of its kind in Australia. Mr Johnston said there was no one-size-fits-all approach to improving power reliability in the region and a microgrid would not be suitable for all Mid West communities. “It might not be a microgrid in every location; sometimes it might be a standalone power system, sometimes it might be a battery energy storage system, but we are learning every day,” he said. Mr Johnston said the region would be included in the recently launched independent review into widespread outages over Christmas. Work has started to address issues in some areas, with a Western Power spokesperson saying maintenance on the network between Northampton and Horrocks had been accelerated due to recent outages. “We have mobilised a dedicated planning and operations team assessing the longer-term reliability solutions for this area, and we’ll continue to audit and enhance the Kalbarri and Northampton feeders to improve power supply and prevent prolonged outages in future,” they said. “Two specialist crews arrived in the area on Monday to start the program of works, including replacing insulators. “A further four dedicated crews will be in Horrocks from Friday to wash and silicone the line, comprising 138 poles from Northampton to Horrocks. They will also inspect and repair other identified defects.” As a short-term solution, the spokesperson said three generators had been deployed to Horrocks to temporarily supply the town in the event of an outage.