❓ Hon Steve Martin asks about a major power outage in the Midwest on March 14, affecting 60,000 people. The Minister explains the outage was due to a tripped protection device during planned maintenance, causing Mungarra power station to fail, and confirms Mungarra's operational status and use in restoration.
AnsweredQoN 333Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
WESTERN POWER — OUTAGES — MIDWEST
333. Hon STEVE MARTIN to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the major power blackout
in the midwest on 14 March for over five hours.
(1) Can the
minister please explain the cause of the power outage that affected around 60 000
people in Geraldton, Dongara, Northampton, Mullewa and surrounding communities?
(2) Can the
minister please advise the current status of Mungarra power station and whether
the facility was utilised during the power outage?
333. Hon STEVE MARTIN to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the major power blackout
in the midwest on 14 March for over five hours.
(1) Can the
minister please explain the cause of the power outage that affected around 60 000
people in Geraldton, Dongara, Northampton, Mullewa and surrounding communities?
(2) Can the
minister please advise the current status of Mungarra power station and whether
the facility was utilised during the power outage?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice
of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by the Minister
for Energy.
(1) Western Power was undertaking planned work on the
transmission network that supplies some communities and industry in the
midwest region on Tuesday, 14 March. To safely complete this essential
maintenance, it required the region north of Three Springs to be ''islanded''
from the main network and supplied via Synergy's gas generator located
at Mungarra. Western Power has used this island approach regularly to manage
outages and it involves significant planning and collaboration with the
Australian Energy Market Operator, Synergy and transmission customers to
maintain power supply. During the islanding operation, a protection device
tripped at the Walkaway substation, which isolated part of the network at 4.50 am.
This fault caused the generators at Mungarra to become unstable and trip,
resulting in the power outage experienced by communities in the midwest region.
Western Power took a multi-pronged approach to progressively restore power,
including recalling transmission lines that had been de-energised to enable
planned maintenance and collaborating with Synergy to restart the generators at
Mungarra. Areas of the network that are
supported locally by microgrid and battery energy storage systems had minimal
disruptions.
(2) The Mungarra generators are currently operational
and the midwest is again islanded from the main network to enable the
planned maintenance to resume. The planned works are expected to be completed
by the end of next week. Yes, the facility was used in the restoration strategy
for the midwest.
I note that this
answer was correct as at Thursday, 16 March 2023.
of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by the Minister
for Energy.
(1) Western Power was undertaking planned work on the
transmission network that supplies some communities and industry in the
midwest region on Tuesday, 14 March. To safely complete this essential
maintenance, it required the region north of Three Springs to be ''islanded''
from the main network and supplied via Synergy's gas generator located
at Mungarra. Western Power has used this island approach regularly to manage
outages and it involves significant planning and collaboration with the
Australian Energy Market Operator, Synergy and transmission customers to
maintain power supply. During the islanding operation, a protection device
tripped at the Walkaway substation, which isolated part of the network at 4.50 am.
This fault caused the generators at Mungarra to become unstable and trip,
resulting in the power outage experienced by communities in the midwest region.
Western Power took a multi-pronged approach to progressively restore power,
including recalling transmission lines that had been de-energised to enable
planned maintenance and collaborating with Synergy to restart the generators at
Mungarra. Areas of the network that are
supported locally by microgrid and battery energy storage systems had minimal
disruptions.
(2) The Mungarra generators are currently operational
and the midwest is again islanded from the main network to enable the
planned maintenance to resume. The planned works are expected to be completed
by the end of next week. Yes, the facility was used in the restoration strategy
for the midwest.
I note that this
answer was correct as at Thursday, 16 March 2023.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.