By Deanne Jeffers
PERSISTENT power outages across have left homes and businesses without electricity for days on end in towns like Nagambie, Euroa, Benalla, Seymour, Avenel and others.
According to AusNet, who maintains power in the area, between November 8 2023 and January 16 2024, there were nine sustained widespread unplanned interruptions to the towns and surrounding areas of Euroa and Violet Town. This does not include momentary or planned outages.
Speaking about the impact of these constant blackouts in December, the Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland said, “I understand that there is a need for occasional maintenance, however the regular unplanned outages are having a significant impact on the health of our local residents and financial viability of businesses.
“I have heard from several constituents who have struggled during these outages including those with disabilities, the elderly and business owners.”
Recently Ms Cleeland was joined by Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell and Shadow Minister for Energy David Davis for public meetings in impacted communities, with nearly 300 attendees participating across town halls.
“It was so important to hear from those impacted by these power outages and understand the very real effect this is having on households and businesses,” Ms Cleeland said.
“These outages are doing more than just keeping residents in the dark, they are hitting people’s pockets at a time when they can least afford it, preventing people from working and forcing many businesses to close.
“These outages, and AusNet’s role in them, is something that I have been working on over the course of my time in Parliament, even before the most recent string of power outages,” said Ms Cleeland, promising to make this her main priority when Parliament resumes this month.
An AusNet spokesperson said that reliability has recently declined on AusNet’s Benalla to Euroa feeder line, with a step change increase in the average duration and area (number of customers) impacted for each outage.
AusNet apologised for the outages and a spokesperson said, “We have identified some immediate measures to improve reliability on the Benalla to Euroa line, and we continue to investigate long-term solutions.”
“While some outages are due to extreme weather, they have also been influenced by the recent commissioning of new bushfire risk reduction technology, Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiters (REFCL), at Benalla and Violet Town in September 2023.
“While REFCLs are critical technology to reduce the risk of fire in the most severe conditions (e.g. high and total fire ban days), they make the network more sensitive to faults and it can take longer to restore them.
“Over the weekend (Jan 19, 2024) AusNet adjusted the settings on our equipment to manage the sensitivities of our bushfire risk reduction technology, which we will reinstate on days with fire ratings of high or above. This should reduce the customers impacted and the duration of outages if they occur,” said the AusNet spokesperson.
Ms Cleeland said personal stories from the town halls would contribute to the case to call for AusNet to invest in upgrading the infrastructure and deliver a reliable service. Residents who were unable to attend can share their experience by emailing Annabelle.cleeland@parliament.vic.gov.au
