❓ Mr Rundle questions the Minister for Energy about the disparity in electricity supply allocation between regional and city areas, specifically regarding 32-amp versus 63-amp service. The Minister responds by outlining a pilot program to trial increasing rural supply allocations to 63 amps in select shires, enabled by government investment in advanced metering infrastructure.
AnsweredQoN 593Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ELECTRICITY SUPPLY — REGIONS
593. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the review undertaken by
Western Power and to the supply allocation of 32 amps for single-phase rural
residential properties in Western Australia versus 63 amps for the cities. Will
the minister heed the calls of regional families, the opposition and impacted
regional businesses and finally deliver a level playing field by providing a 63-amp
supply allocation across the whole of regional WA?
593. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the review undertaken by
Western Power and to the supply allocation of 32 amps for single-phase rural
residential properties in Western Australia versus 63 amps for the cities. Will
the minister heed the calls of regional families, the opposition and impacted
regional businesses and finally deliver a level playing field by providing a 63-amp
supply allocation across the whole of regional WA?
AnswerView source ↗
I
want to thank a number of members in the chamber and members in the Legislative
Council who have been talking to me about this matter for some time,
particularly the member for Collie–Preston who, of course, was the
first person to raise the issue with me. I have been asked about this issue in
this chamber previously and I keep pointing out that this is not a question of
policy; it is a question of the engineering of the system here in Western Australia. The 32-amp allocation for regional Western Australians
has always been in place. The issue was that when a 32-amp safety switch
was installed, we had some properties tripping off. I emphasise that that was
not the Western Power network tripping off; it was the safety switch inside the
home or business of the Western Power customer.
After the member for Collie–Preston
and other members approached me, I raised this issue with Western Power and I asked
it to review the engineering situation. Western Power has completed a thorough
review of the situation and it has presented me with the outcomes, from which
it has identified a pathway forward that continues the McGowan government's commitment to provide reliable and
affordable power to all Western Australians regardless of where they
live. We are able to do this because of the investment made by the government
of Western Australia into advanced metering infrastructure for the electricity
system in Western Australia. These telemetry upgrades for network resilience,
as part of our accelerated AMI rollout in response to the Distributed energy
resources roadmap and the broader energy transformation strategy that we
have in Western Australia, now mean that Western Power is able to measure and
model customer demand and network performance, which was never able to be done
in the past. It is only because of the investments made by the McGowan Labor
government that we are able to do these reviews.
The desktop review has now been
completed and it found that with standardisation of the network design, as well as planning for load growth, we believe that
we can increase the regional load from 32-amp single-phase to 63-amp single-phase, with some adjustments. To further assess the results of this
desktop review, Western Power will now launch a pilot program to trial
increasing rural supply allocations to 63 amps across parts of the south west
and the wheatbelt region. The trial will run from now until 31 July 2023 across
the following shires: Boyup Brook, Bridgetown–Greenbushes,
Collie, Donnybrook–Balingup, Nannup, West Arthur and Williams.
Performance of the network over the trial period will be assessed using
smart technology, including the AMI infrastructure that has been paid for by
the McGowan government. Upon completion of the trial, Western Power will
provide me with its recommendations on the viability to increase the rural
supply allocation to 63 amps across the entire south west interconnected
system, identifying any areas where further network investment may be needed.
Western Power will be releasing more details via its website.
I want to reiterate that safe,
reliable and affordable electricity supply is a priority for this government.
Main switch circuit breakers support the safety of the community and the
network as they are designed to provide overload protection for a household if
connection service capacity is exceeded, preventing significant outages and
damage to equipment and appliances. Additionally, they ensure safe and
equitable access to power supply for the whole community and support the growth
of renewable energy and distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar and
battery storage systems.
I want to thank the member for
Collie–Preston in particular for the advocacy that she has made on this
topic. We are confident that the decision of Western Power to trial this new
approach is going to be successful because we now have the data available to
us. That data is available only because of the investment of the McGowan Labor
government into this new technology to allow us to better monitor the system.
As long as the trial in those locations succeeds, we will be able to fully
implement the new process from April next year.
want to thank a number of members in the chamber and members in the Legislative
Council who have been talking to me about this matter for some time,
particularly the member for Collie–Preston who, of course, was the
first person to raise the issue with me. I have been asked about this issue in
this chamber previously and I keep pointing out that this is not a question of
policy; it is a question of the engineering of the system here in Western Australia. The 32-amp allocation for regional Western Australians
has always been in place. The issue was that when a 32-amp safety switch
was installed, we had some properties tripping off. I emphasise that that was
not the Western Power network tripping off; it was the safety switch inside the
home or business of the Western Power customer.
After the member for Collie–Preston
and other members approached me, I raised this issue with Western Power and I asked
it to review the engineering situation. Western Power has completed a thorough
review of the situation and it has presented me with the outcomes, from which
it has identified a pathway forward that continues the McGowan government's commitment to provide reliable and
affordable power to all Western Australians regardless of where they
live. We are able to do this because of the investment made by the government
of Western Australia into advanced metering infrastructure for the electricity
system in Western Australia. These telemetry upgrades for network resilience,
as part of our accelerated AMI rollout in response to the Distributed energy
resources roadmap and the broader energy transformation strategy that we
have in Western Australia, now mean that Western Power is able to measure and
model customer demand and network performance, which was never able to be done
in the past. It is only because of the investments made by the McGowan Labor
government that we are able to do these reviews.
The desktop review has now been
completed and it found that with standardisation of the network design, as well as planning for load growth, we believe that
we can increase the regional load from 32-amp single-phase to 63-amp single-phase, with some adjustments. To further assess the results of this
desktop review, Western Power will now launch a pilot program to trial
increasing rural supply allocations to 63 amps across parts of the south west
and the wheatbelt region. The trial will run from now until 31 July 2023 across
the following shires: Boyup Brook, Bridgetown–Greenbushes,
Collie, Donnybrook–Balingup, Nannup, West Arthur and Williams.
Performance of the network over the trial period will be assessed using
smart technology, including the AMI infrastructure that has been paid for by
the McGowan government. Upon completion of the trial, Western Power will
provide me with its recommendations on the viability to increase the rural
supply allocation to 63 amps across the entire south west interconnected
system, identifying any areas where further network investment may be needed.
Western Power will be releasing more details via its website.
I want to reiterate that safe,
reliable and affordable electricity supply is a priority for this government.
Main switch circuit breakers support the safety of the community and the
network as they are designed to provide overload protection for a household if
connection service capacity is exceeded, preventing significant outages and
damage to equipment and appliances. Additionally, they ensure safe and
equitable access to power supply for the whole community and support the growth
of renewable energy and distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar and
battery storage systems.
I want to thank the member for
Collie–Preston in particular for the advocacy that she has made on this
topic. We are confident that the decision of Western Power to trial this new
approach is going to be successful because we now have the data available to
us. That data is available only because of the investment of the McGowan Labor
government into this new technology to allow us to better monitor the system.
As long as the trial in those locations succeeds, we will be able to fully
implement the new process from April next year.
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