A report has confirmed that privately-owned distribution networks were responsible for the widespread outages across Victoria over the 2018 Australia Day weekend, as opposed to a lack of energy supply.
Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Lily D’Ambrosio, has released the Victorian Government review, which makes 15 recommendations to prevent similar events from happening in the future.
The recommendations focus on clearer and faster communications to customers and require distribution businesses to put in place low-cost, innovative solutions to manage high-demand periods.
These recommendations include that distribution networks:
- Inform the government of their plans to address network weaknesses
- Communicate with DHHS and vulnerable customers (such as those on life support equipment) about extreme weather events that might cause an outage
- Develop a single website for Victorians providing up-to-date information before, during and after outages
Electricity distribution businesses have committed to implementing all of the review’s recommendations.
Following the January outages, the government brokered a deal with Powercor, CitiPower, United Energy, Ausnet Services and Jemena to provide a $5 million relief package to around 50,000 affected customers.
Customers off supply for between three and 20 hours received $80, while those off supply for between 20 and 30 hours received up to $180.
These one-off payments went above and beyond the Guaranteed Service Level payments, which normally only apply where customers lose supply for at least 12-18 hours, rather than three hours.
For more information on the review, visit energy.vic.gov.au.
