❓ Mr. Love questions the Premier about power outages in regional WA and requests an independent review. The Premier acknowledges the severity of the outages due to unprecedented weather, defends the response, and highlights ongoing investment in grid resilience.
AnsweredQoN 7Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ELECTRICITY
— OUTAGES
7. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Premier:
I refer to the extended
power outages that impacted more than 30 000 people across Kalgoorlie and other
areas of the goldfields, the wheatbelt and parts of the Perth hills in
January. Will the Cook Labor government commit to an independent review of the
outages and the forward planning and response by government, Western Power and
Synergy?
— OUTAGES
7. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Premier:
I refer to the extended
power outages that impacted more than 30 000 people across Kalgoorlie and other
areas of the goldfields, the wheatbelt and parts of the Perth hills in
January. Will the Cook Labor government commit to an independent review of the
outages and the forward planning and response by government, Western Power and
Synergy?
AnswerView source ↗
As I have reported, both in public utterances and to the
media, we will certainly look into the circumstances that led to the outages
experienced in the Perth hills, the wheatbelt and Kalgoorlie. Everyone knows
the reason why those outages occurred. It is because we had unprecedented
weather systems. There were supercell storms, which wreaked unprecedented havoc
across those power networks. The outages experienced across the wheatbelt and Kalgoorlie were because we had five transmission
towers taken out by that supercell system. It treated those 50-metre towers like tinfoil, severing the entire system.
There was an unprecedented set of circumstances. The last
time we had a single transmission tower outage was more than 35 years ago. This
was an extraordinary event and one which had a devastating impact on not only
the communities directly impacted but those who live around them. We know, for
instance, that Kalgoorlie was not impacted by the storms, but it was impacted
significantly by the outages.
Those are significant pieces of power infrastructure. As a result
of that, it took us a week and a few days to repair them. I am immensely proud that our power crews were able to restore
substantial power to the Kalgoorlie community within 28 hours. It was an
extraordinary outcome, and I am very proud of the work —
Mr R.S. Love : It would have been a lot less if the generator
had been working.
Mr R.H. COOK : There is a reason for that; that is,
essentially, we had was a complete failure of the system. Once the generators
were started, they tripped automatically because the demand on the generators
was too great. We had to reroute some of the power —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Order, please! Can we have some order
please? If the Leader of the Opposition wants the opportunity for a supplementary
question, perhaps we will wait for this answer to conclude.
Mr R.H. COOK : Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is
important information and it is technical information. The Leader of the
Opposition will have to sit in silence if he is going to understand it. We had
a complete blackout, so those generators automatically tripped when they were
turned on. We had to reroute power via the Northam line, which allowed enough
power to go into the system to create enough electricity so the generators
would not trip. That enabled them to restore the power within 28 hours. It was
an outstanding outcome, and I am very proud of the work that those workers did
to bring that back together.
It was highly impactful for not only the people who live in
the community, but the small businesses there as well. The reason the Minister
for Energy was onsite a couple of days later and why I paid a visit after that
was to reassure the community that we will continue to make sure that we invest
in our south west interconnected system to build resilience and to make sure it
is more reliable, particularly for those communities at the edge of the grid.
The fact of the matter remains that as climate change continues to have an
impact on our lives, coastal communities, wooded communities and edge-of-grid
communities will continue to be challenged by severe weather events. That is
why the Minister for Energy continues to review what else we need to do to
ensure the system is reliable. That is one of the reasons why we have invested
so heavily in the south west interconnected system. In November last year I announced
more than $700 million of investment in the south west interconnected system to
continue to build system resilience from that particular incident through to
other edge-of-grid communities to the north.
We need to continue to make sure that we invest properly in
and support those communities.
One of the other issues that occurred—I will not go
on for too much longer—is we saw a significant impact on the
communications infrastructure, particularly around mobile phone access. We will
have to learn from that, and we hope that Telstra and the federal government,
which is responsible for telecommunications, take those lessons on board and seek to find ways to make those
communication systems much more resilient. This was an unprecedented weather event. It could have led to Kalgoorlie and some of the wheatbelt
communities along that line being cut off for literally weeks. Mercifully, we
were able to largely restore the power inside 28 hours and were able to rebuild
that trunk line within, I think, nine days. Also mercifully, we now have power
going to those communities so that they can continue to enjoy the benefits of
the south west interconnected system.
media, we will certainly look into the circumstances that led to the outages
experienced in the Perth hills, the wheatbelt and Kalgoorlie. Everyone knows
the reason why those outages occurred. It is because we had unprecedented
weather systems. There were supercell storms, which wreaked unprecedented havoc
across those power networks. The outages experienced across the wheatbelt and Kalgoorlie were because we had five transmission
towers taken out by that supercell system. It treated those 50-metre towers like tinfoil, severing the entire system.
There was an unprecedented set of circumstances. The last
time we had a single transmission tower outage was more than 35 years ago. This
was an extraordinary event and one which had a devastating impact on not only
the communities directly impacted but those who live around them. We know, for
instance, that Kalgoorlie was not impacted by the storms, but it was impacted
significantly by the outages.
Those are significant pieces of power infrastructure. As a result
of that, it took us a week and a few days to repair them. I am immensely proud that our power crews were able to restore
substantial power to the Kalgoorlie community within 28 hours. It was an
extraordinary outcome, and I am very proud of the work —
Mr R.S. Love : It would have been a lot less if the generator
had been working.
Mr R.H. COOK : There is a reason for that; that is,
essentially, we had was a complete failure of the system. Once the generators
were started, they tripped automatically because the demand on the generators
was too great. We had to reroute some of the power —
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Order, please! Can we have some order
please? If the Leader of the Opposition wants the opportunity for a supplementary
question, perhaps we will wait for this answer to conclude.
Mr R.H. COOK : Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is
important information and it is technical information. The Leader of the
Opposition will have to sit in silence if he is going to understand it. We had
a complete blackout, so those generators automatically tripped when they were
turned on. We had to reroute power via the Northam line, which allowed enough
power to go into the system to create enough electricity so the generators
would not trip. That enabled them to restore the power within 28 hours. It was
an outstanding outcome, and I am very proud of the work that those workers did
to bring that back together.
It was highly impactful for not only the people who live in
the community, but the small businesses there as well. The reason the Minister
for Energy was onsite a couple of days later and why I paid a visit after that
was to reassure the community that we will continue to make sure that we invest
in our south west interconnected system to build resilience and to make sure it
is more reliable, particularly for those communities at the edge of the grid.
The fact of the matter remains that as climate change continues to have an
impact on our lives, coastal communities, wooded communities and edge-of-grid
communities will continue to be challenged by severe weather events. That is
why the Minister for Energy continues to review what else we need to do to
ensure the system is reliable. That is one of the reasons why we have invested
so heavily in the south west interconnected system. In November last year I announced
more than $700 million of investment in the south west interconnected system to
continue to build system resilience from that particular incident through to
other edge-of-grid communities to the north.
We need to continue to make sure that we invest properly in
and support those communities.
One of the other issues that occurred—I will not go
on for too much longer—is we saw a significant impact on the
communications infrastructure, particularly around mobile phone access. We will
have to learn from that, and we hope that Telstra and the federal government,
which is responsible for telecommunications, take those lessons on board and seek to find ways to make those
communication systems much more resilient. This was an unprecedented weather event. It could have led to Kalgoorlie and some of the wheatbelt
communities along that line being cut off for literally weeks. Mercifully, we
were able to largely restore the power inside 28 hours and were able to rebuild
that trunk line within, I think, nine days. Also mercifully, we now have power
going to those communities so that they can continue to enjoy the benefits of
the south west interconnected system.
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