❓ Ms. Davies raises concerns about telecommunication failures during power outages in regional WA. The Premier acknowledges the issue, highlights state government efforts in improving power resilience, and points to the federal government's role in telecommunications resilience.
AnsweredQoN 13Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TELECOMMUNICATION OUTAGES
13. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I
refer to widespread power blackouts in my electorate of Central Wheatbelt, the
goldfields and Perth hills in January , which resulted in the complete
loss of power and, in some cases, water, fuel supply and telecommunications for
multiple days.
(1) Has the
Minister for Emergency Services briefed the Premier on the unacceptable risk to
lives and communities as a result of telecommunications failures and lack of
access to 000 that occurred during this prolonged outage?
(2) When will
this government deploy more standalone power systems to the wheatbelt to ensure
that our communities are not faced with
another summer of sweltering heat, with no power, fuel, water or mobile connection?
13. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I
refer to widespread power blackouts in my electorate of Central Wheatbelt, the
goldfields and Perth hills in January , which resulted in the complete
loss of power and, in some cases, water, fuel supply and telecommunications for
multiple days.
(1) Has the
Minister for Emergency Services briefed the Premier on the unacceptable risk to
lives and communities as a result of telecommunications failures and lack of
access to 000 that occurred during this prolonged outage?
(2) When will
this government deploy more standalone power systems to the wheatbelt to ensure
that our communities are not faced with
another summer of sweltering heat, with no power, fuel, water or mobile connection?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
As I said in my earlier comment, we will obviously review the situation with
respect to those outages and continue to learn from them. Over the last seven
years, under the guidance of the former Minister for Energy, Western Power has
been bringing to bear many microgrids and standalone systems as part of the
overall effort to build resilience into the system and to help those, as I said,
who are edge-of-grid and experiencing unreliable power as a result of that. In
addition to that, I note that the member mentioned the impact on telecommunications.
That is fundamentally a question for the federal government to resolve,
although I note that it has engaged Hon Alannah MacTiernan to review the Optus
outage and the impact that had on communities. I am sure that will be
considered as part of that review.
We will certainly stand ready to
work with the commonwealth to make sure that we have much more resilient telecommunication systems. In particular, we want
to work with Telstra to understand why it did not have backup systems
for its transmission towers and why its systems were not more resilient in the
face of a catastrophic loss of power, as we saw in that particular situation,
but we will continue to make sure that we work with the commonwealth and work
with Telstra to ensure, to the best we can, that the telecommunications in
those regional areas in these situations is much more resilient.
As I said in my earlier comment, we will obviously review the situation with
respect to those outages and continue to learn from them. Over the last seven
years, under the guidance of the former Minister for Energy, Western Power has
been bringing to bear many microgrids and standalone systems as part of the
overall effort to build resilience into the system and to help those, as I said,
who are edge-of-grid and experiencing unreliable power as a result of that. In
addition to that, I note that the member mentioned the impact on telecommunications.
That is fundamentally a question for the federal government to resolve,
although I note that it has engaged Hon Alannah MacTiernan to review the Optus
outage and the impact that had on communities. I am sure that will be
considered as part of that review.
We will certainly stand ready to
work with the commonwealth to make sure that we have much more resilient telecommunication systems. In particular, we want
to work with Telstra to understand why it did not have backup systems
for its transmission towers and why its systems were not more resilient in the
face of a catastrophic loss of power, as we saw in that particular situation,
but we will continue to make sure that we work with the commonwealth and work
with Telstra to ensure, to the best we can, that the telecommunications in
those regional areas in these situations is much more resilient.
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