❓ Dr. Thomas questions the Minister about lengthy delays in connecting residential properties to the grid, particularly regarding Western Power's connection times and transparency. The Minister acknowledges the delays and outlines steps being taken to improve connection times, but deflects providing historical data.
AnsweredQoN 233Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
South West Interconnected System and North West Interconnected
System—Upgrades
233. Hon Dr Steve Thomas to the Leader of the
House representing the Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation:
I refer to the
minister's answer to my question without notice 185 asked on 21 May 2025, which
revealed that Western Power is taking an average of 10 months to connect single
residential connections and over a year for larger multi-residential
connections.
(1) Is the 10-month timeframe accepted as the new
normal by the government?
(2) Why is it taking so long to get a single home
connected to the grid?
(3) What was the average time to get a single home
connected to the grid each year since 2017?
(4) Why has Western Power taken the indicative or
expected timeframes down from its website, and why did the minister refer to
average time taken rather than indicative timeframes in her answer to the same
question yesterday?
System—Upgrades
233. Hon Dr Steve Thomas to the Leader of the
House representing the Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation:
I refer to the
minister's answer to my question without notice 185 asked on 21 May 2025, which
revealed that Western Power is taking an average of 10 months to connect single
residential connections and over a year for larger multi-residential
connections.
(1) Is the 10-month timeframe accepted as the new
normal by the government?
(2) Why is it taking so long to get a single home
connected to the grid?
(3) What was the average time to get a single home
connected to the grid each year since 2017?
(4) Why has Western Power taken the indicative or
expected timeframes down from its website, and why did the minister refer to
average time taken rather than indicative timeframes in her answer to the same
question yesterday?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question.
Hon Dr Steve Thomas: Give me a proper answer.
Hon Stephen Dawson: Honourable member, I give these
answers on behalf of somebody else. For those who have not been here before,
you ask silly questions on Thursday.
(1)–(2) Time to connect can vary depending
on the location, complexity of the specific site and size of the connection
being requested, as well as engineering design resource demands and constructor
availability. Western Power is focused on improving connection times for all
project types. A dedicated land development and residential designs area has
been established, and technology solutions to reduce timeframes are being
explored.
(3) The extent of
information requested by the member dates back to 2017. The member should put
this part of the question on notice.
(4) Western Power has not recently changed the
format of timeframes expressed on its website.
honourable member for some notice of the question.
Hon Dr Steve Thomas: Give me a proper answer.
Hon Stephen Dawson: Honourable member, I give these
answers on behalf of somebody else. For those who have not been here before,
you ask silly questions on Thursday.
(1)–(2) Time to connect can vary depending
on the location, complexity of the specific site and size of the connection
being requested, as well as engineering design resource demands and constructor
availability. Western Power is focused on improving connection times for all
project types. A dedicated land development and residential designs area has
been established, and technology solutions to reduce timeframes are being
explored.
(3) The extent of
information requested by the member dates back to 2017. The member should put
this part of the question on notice.
(4) Western Power has not recently changed the
format of timeframes expressed on its website.
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