❓ A parliamentary question regarding a constituent's dispute with Western Power over pole removal and replacement, highlighting concerns about resource allocation and communication. The Minister's response provides context and commits to clarifying the situation.
AnsweredQoN 449Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WESTERN POWER — POLE REPLACEMENT
449. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the recent call from a farmer
from Kojonup to the ABC morning show regarding his bizarre experiences with
Western Power's pole replacement. He requested the removal of six poles
in one paddock and three in another area, which both led to unused facilities.
He was quoted in the order of $50 000 to remove the poles, which he obviously rejected. Eventually, Western Power took
it upon itself to replace the nine poles and put in a new transformer, which led to nowhere. When we have new businesses and developers waiting up to
two years for a new connection, why is Western Power not able to help them but
is able to replace poles and a transformer that my constituent wanted removed?
449. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the recent call from a farmer
from Kojonup to the ABC morning show regarding his bizarre experiences with
Western Power's pole replacement. He requested the removal of six poles
in one paddock and three in another area, which both led to unused facilities.
He was quoted in the order of $50 000 to remove the poles, which he obviously rejected. Eventually, Western Power took
it upon itself to replace the nine poles and put in a new transformer, which led to nowhere. When we have new businesses and developers waiting up to
two years for a new connection, why is Western Power not able to help them but
is able to replace poles and a transformer that my constituent wanted removed?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for prior notice
of this question. I appreciate that.
I also heard that conversation on
the radio, but I think it is one of those cases in which there is another side
of the story and the full details need to come out. It is true that Mr Heggaton—I
will go through the history a bit—has requested that poles and wires be
removed from his property. He first lodged a request back in 2008. That request was later cancelled by him. Another request
was made in 2013, which led to poles and wires being removed in 2018 . Mr
Heggaton last officially asked for poles and wires to be removed from his
property in 2017. This was costed at $14 500. The issue was escalated
repeatedly. There were issues and requests. Western Power eventually decided to
bear that cost after the customer complained about the quoted cost of
disconnecting and removing assets.
It is important to know that this
property owner has a number of large landholdings that are made up of many
separate titles. In fact, I am told there are 170 poles on his entire Kojonup
property—so many titles making up one landholding.
To further complicate the matter, not all those titles are in his name, so it
is a bit of a minefield working out which properties are which and which
ones he is referring to. When Western Power does a search on his name, it does
not necessarily come back with all the properties he is talking about because
they are in other names.
Mr Heggaton apparently reached out
to Western Power in March after the previous history I spoke about. However, there was no recent formal request for poles to be
removed from his property. Western Power has done a search. It believes that after a conversation Mr Heggaton had
about issues about poles, he did not make a formal request. That is
Western Power's information to me; it cannot find evidence of that.
That was in March. There was a conversation with Western Power but no formal
request for anything to be done. There was a conversation on ABC radio on 12 June
when Mr Heggaton made some comments, asking Western Power for two spur lines
and nine power poles to be removed, and he was quoted a cost of $50 000. After
that conversation on the radio, Western Power reached out to Mr Heggaton.
During their conversation, he told Western Power, according to Western Power,
that the quote was for between $30 000 and $40 000 and it related to a request
about four years ago, in 2020.
We need to get to the bottom of
this. I will say though that when there is a belief that infrastructure is no
longer required by a certain property owner, it is often the case that the
infrastructure that traverses their property supplies power to other neighbours.
Western Power does not want to de-energise infrastructure if it serves other
neighbours across the property. It needs to clarify exactly what is going on.
We are talking about over 100 poles on a property broken up into different
titles. It needs to seek clarity.
The other issue is that
these are Western Power assets. There might be a request to no longer have a property
energised but after a change of ownership of property, the new owner
might request that to happen, so we do not want to expend money by taking away
infrastructure only to reinstall it later.
The issue of replacing Western Power's
poles is also important from the perspective of safety. First and foremost, Western Power has a responsibility to maintain
safe infrastructure. When it sights infrastructure that needs replacing ,
it will replace it. That is a very important issue because when Western Power
infrastructure fails, it could lead to outages certainly, but in worse
situations, it could lead to tragedies, loss of life and devastation resulting
from fire. That is a priority of Western Power.
There
is some confusion with this issue. Western Power has taken the initiative,
after not hearing from this gentleman for some time. A fter hearing that radio spot, I am
very keen that it gets to the bottom of the requests and the issues. It is
currently working with the property owner to resolve his issues.
of this question. I appreciate that.
I also heard that conversation on
the radio, but I think it is one of those cases in which there is another side
of the story and the full details need to come out. It is true that Mr Heggaton—I
will go through the history a bit—has requested that poles and wires be
removed from his property. He first lodged a request back in 2008. That request was later cancelled by him. Another request
was made in 2013, which led to poles and wires being removed in 2018 . Mr
Heggaton last officially asked for poles and wires to be removed from his
property in 2017. This was costed at $14 500. The issue was escalated
repeatedly. There were issues and requests. Western Power eventually decided to
bear that cost after the customer complained about the quoted cost of
disconnecting and removing assets.
It is important to know that this
property owner has a number of large landholdings that are made up of many
separate titles. In fact, I am told there are 170 poles on his entire Kojonup
property—so many titles making up one landholding.
To further complicate the matter, not all those titles are in his name, so it
is a bit of a minefield working out which properties are which and which
ones he is referring to. When Western Power does a search on his name, it does
not necessarily come back with all the properties he is talking about because
they are in other names.
Mr Heggaton apparently reached out
to Western Power in March after the previous history I spoke about. However, there was no recent formal request for poles to be
removed from his property. Western Power has done a search. It believes that after a conversation Mr Heggaton had
about issues about poles, he did not make a formal request. That is
Western Power's information to me; it cannot find evidence of that.
That was in March. There was a conversation with Western Power but no formal
request for anything to be done. There was a conversation on ABC radio on 12 June
when Mr Heggaton made some comments, asking Western Power for two spur lines
and nine power poles to be removed, and he was quoted a cost of $50 000. After
that conversation on the radio, Western Power reached out to Mr Heggaton.
During their conversation, he told Western Power, according to Western Power,
that the quote was for between $30 000 and $40 000 and it related to a request
about four years ago, in 2020.
We need to get to the bottom of
this. I will say though that when there is a belief that infrastructure is no
longer required by a certain property owner, it is often the case that the
infrastructure that traverses their property supplies power to other neighbours.
Western Power does not want to de-energise infrastructure if it serves other
neighbours across the property. It needs to clarify exactly what is going on.
We are talking about over 100 poles on a property broken up into different
titles. It needs to seek clarity.
The other issue is that
these are Western Power assets. There might be a request to no longer have a property
energised but after a change of ownership of property, the new owner
might request that to happen, so we do not want to expend money by taking away
infrastructure only to reinstall it later.
The issue of replacing Western Power's
poles is also important from the perspective of safety. First and foremost, Western Power has a responsibility to maintain
safe infrastructure. When it sights infrastructure that needs replacing ,
it will replace it. That is a very important issue because when Western Power
infrastructure fails, it could lead to outages certainly, but in worse
situations, it could lead to tragedies, loss of life and devastation resulting
from fire. That is a priority of Western Power.
There
is some confusion with this issue. Western Power has taken the initiative,
after not hearing from this gentleman for some time. A fter hearing that radio spot, I am
very keen that it gets to the bottom of the requests and the issues. It is
currently working with the property owner to resolve his issues.
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