❓ Mr. Jones questions the Minister for Energy about preventing future power outages, referencing Christmas outages and Western Power's reliability. The Minister details grid upgrades and acknowledges the impact of climate change and renewable energy integration on network resilience.
AnsweredQoN 503Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
503. Mr H.T. JONES to the Minister for Energy:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitments to providing a safe,
affordable and reliable power supply to
all Western Australians. Can the minister update the house on the work underway
to prevent power outages likes those that occurred over Christmas last
year, and can the minister advise the house how this work will help maintain Western
Power's 99.9 per cent network reliability?
503. Mr H.T. JONES to the Minister for Energy:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitments to providing a safe,
affordable and reliable power supply to
all Western Australians. Can the minister update the house on the work underway
to prevent power outages likes those that occurred over Christmas last
year, and can the minister advise the house how this work will help maintain Western
Power's 99.9 per cent network reliability?
AnswerView source ↗
I
thank the member for the question. I know that the Christmas outages
particularly impacted his constituents. I have previously apologised for the outages over Christmas, and I make it
clear to people that I understand completely that it is never convenient to be without power. In a modern
society, we are very dependent on electricity, and so an outage has a greater impact than it might have had 20 or
30 years ago. Of course, that larger volume of demand for electricity is one of
the challenges that we have to deal with. I make it clear, too, that as
demonstrated by the independent review of the Christmas outages, there
was no one reason, not one cause, for outages in different locations.
Through Western Power, we are reinforcing the grid in the locations that it had those
different outages. We have upgraded substations at Clarkson, Byford and Yanchep
to make sure that those substations can carry greater loads. We are reinforcing
the Waikiki substation, because that is an important element in the supply of
power to the southern suburbs. People should understand that a substation in
one location can have an impact on the network for many kilometres around; it
is not just in that particular suburb. We are also installing new feeders in
Mandurah, Byford, Waikiki and Henley Brook. That gives Western Power new
options for feeding electricity in different pathways, because the high level
of visibility Western Power has on the transmission infrastructure means that
it can observe when there is an overload situation. By switching the load from
one location to another, it can provide increased reliability. For areas such
as Byford, where there is limited capacity to move electricity around because
the population is less dense than in other areas such as the CBD, that will now
give Western Power greater options to pass electricity around an individual
outage and an individual location.
Is it not remarkable that even with
the Christmas outages, Western Power has been able to achieve a greater than
99.9 per cent reliability for all customers in its network? Its target is 99.8 per
cent reliability, so to achieve 99.9 per cent reliability is remarkable. Of
course, if you are without power, no amount of average reliability will make
your outage any easier, but it simply is not possible to provide 100 per cent
reliable electricity. We are trying to build resilience into the network so
that we can cope with these changed electricity dynamics, because this is the result of climate change. As the climate
changes, demand for electricity rises, and so we continue to build a more
resilient network. As the source of electricity changes, as we have increased
levels of renewable energy, we also have to change the network to take account
of that. We are doing both things at the same time.
thank the member for the question. I know that the Christmas outages
particularly impacted his constituents. I have previously apologised for the outages over Christmas, and I make it
clear to people that I understand completely that it is never convenient to be without power. In a modern
society, we are very dependent on electricity, and so an outage has a greater impact than it might have had 20 or
30 years ago. Of course, that larger volume of demand for electricity is one of
the challenges that we have to deal with. I make it clear, too, that as
demonstrated by the independent review of the Christmas outages, there
was no one reason, not one cause, for outages in different locations.
Through Western Power, we are reinforcing the grid in the locations that it had those
different outages. We have upgraded substations at Clarkson, Byford and Yanchep
to make sure that those substations can carry greater loads. We are reinforcing
the Waikiki substation, because that is an important element in the supply of
power to the southern suburbs. People should understand that a substation in
one location can have an impact on the network for many kilometres around; it
is not just in that particular suburb. We are also installing new feeders in
Mandurah, Byford, Waikiki and Henley Brook. That gives Western Power new
options for feeding electricity in different pathways, because the high level
of visibility Western Power has on the transmission infrastructure means that
it can observe when there is an overload situation. By switching the load from
one location to another, it can provide increased reliability. For areas such
as Byford, where there is limited capacity to move electricity around because
the population is less dense than in other areas such as the CBD, that will now
give Western Power greater options to pass electricity around an individual
outage and an individual location.
Is it not remarkable that even with
the Christmas outages, Western Power has been able to achieve a greater than
99.9 per cent reliability for all customers in its network? Its target is 99.8 per
cent reliability, so to achieve 99.9 per cent reliability is remarkable. Of
course, if you are without power, no amount of average reliability will make
your outage any easier, but it simply is not possible to provide 100 per cent
reliable electricity. We are trying to build resilience into the network so
that we can cope with these changed electricity dynamics, because this is the result of climate change. As the climate
changes, demand for electricity rises, and so we continue to build a more
resilient network. As the source of electricity changes, as we have increased
levels of renewable energy, we also have to change the network to take account
of that. We are doing both things at the same time.
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