❓ A WA parliamentary question addresses power supply reliability in the north central wheatbelt, pole reinforcement programs, and government spending on non-metropolitan electricity distribution. The Minister denies a crisis, attributing outages to storms and citing better-than-average reliability statistics.
AnsweredQoN 516Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Given that the minister declined a National Party invitation to attend a crisis meeting at Koorda on 16 January to discuss the catastrophic power supply situation in the north central wheatbelt, and in the light of subsequent investigations by the Energy Safety Directorate into more than 150 registrations of complaint, I ask - (1) What is the status of Western Power’s pole replacement and reinforcement program for the so-called Minnivale distribution line from Cunderdin to north of Koorda, and what has been the actual expenditure for pole replacement for that network over the past 12 months? (2) On 26 February this year, the minister said that in 2001-02, the Government spent $20.8 million on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area. Can the minister state how much of that was spent on the south west interconnected system? (3) Given the recent blackouts of up to 80 hours in Koorda and 45 hours in Calingiri-Yerecoin and Bremer Bay, will the minister now acknowledge that there is a crisis in quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia? Mr E.S. RIPPER
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(1) What is the status of Western Power’s pole replacement and reinforcement program for the so-called Minnivale distribution line from Cunderdin to north of Koorda, and what has been the actual expenditure for pole replacement for that network over the past 12 months? (2) On 26 February this year, the minister said that in 2001-02, the Government spent $20.8 million on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area. Can the minister state how much of that was spent on the south west interconnected system? (3) Given the recent blackouts of up to 80 hours in Koorda and 45 hours in Calingiri-Yerecoin and Bremer Bay, will the minister now acknowledge that there is a crisis in quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(2) On 26 February this year, the minister said that in 2001-02, the Government spent $20.8 million on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area. Can the minister state how much of that was spent on the south west interconnected system? (3) Given the recent blackouts of up to 80 hours in Koorda and 45 hours in Calingiri-Yerecoin and Bremer Bay, will the minister now acknowledge that there is a crisis in quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(3) Given the recent blackouts of up to 80 hours in Koorda and 45 hours in Calingiri-Yerecoin and Bremer Bay, will the minister now acknowledge that there is a crisis in quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(1) What is the status of Western Power’s pole replacement and reinforcement program for the so-called Minnivale distribution line from Cunderdin to north of Koorda, and what has been the actual expenditure for pole replacement for that network over the past 12 months? (2) On 26 February this year, the minister said that in 2001-02, the Government spent $20.8 million on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area. Can the minister state how much of that was spent on the south west interconnected system? (3) Given the recent blackouts of up to 80 hours in Koorda and 45 hours in Calingiri-Yerecoin and Bremer Bay, will the minister now acknowledge that there is a crisis in quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(2) On 26 February this year, the minister said that in 2001-02, the Government spent $20.8 million on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area. Can the minister state how much of that was spent on the south west interconnected system? (3) Given the recent blackouts of up to 80 hours in Koorda and 45 hours in Calingiri-Yerecoin and Bremer Bay, will the minister now acknowledge that there is a crisis in quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(3) Given the recent blackouts of up to 80 hours in Koorda and 45 hours in Calingiri-Yerecoin and Bremer Bay, will the minister now acknowledge that there is a crisis in quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia? Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(1) At the public meeting at Koorda on 16 January, Western Power made a commitment to steel-reinforce every pole on the Minnivale feeder by May 2003. The program is running ahead of schedule. Once the three-phase feeder poles have been reinforced, Western Power will begin steel-reinforcing poles on another three-phase feeder in the district before moving on to high-priority single-phase spur lines. Overall, the project will cost about $3 million over the next three years. The work has gone out to tender, the contract has been signed and work will begin imminently. Western Power groups its works by job type, rather than by feeder, so gathering the information on expenditure in the past 12 months on the Minnivale feeder will take some time. That information will be provided to the Leader of the National Party later. (2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(2) All of the $20.8 million spent on distribution and maintenance in the non-metropolitan area in 2001-02 was spent on the south west interconnected system. That is substantially in excess of the moneys spent by Western Power in that same system on the same matters in the two previous financial years. The figures I have to hand show expenditure of $9.3 million in 1999-2000, $11.6 million in 2000-01 and $20.8 million in 2001-02. That is a substantial increase. (3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
(3) There is no crisis in the quality and reliability of electricity supply in regional Western Australia. The outages referred to by the Leader of the National Party were largely storm related, and occurred in exceptional circumstances. The Leader of the National Party can dispute that, but based on data from the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, the overall reliability of power supplies in the south west interconnected system is better than the Australian average. Reliability of the south west interconnected system is also significantly better than that in South Australia and Queensland, which have similar distributions of regional populations to that found in Western Australia. Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
Mr M.W. Trenorden interjected. Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
Mr E.S. RIPPER: I say to the Leader of the National Party that, of course, we cannot fail to have sympathy for people who have been without power for extended periods. I do not deny that it is a significant matter to people who have experienced a power outage for a significant period. However, it must be examined in the overall context. It does not help the Leader of the National Party to take an individual circumstance and say that it constitutes a crisis when that flies in the face of both the investment made by this Government in the past two years to address a 30-year problem and in the overall statistics on the reliability of the system.
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.