Western Power is collaborating with local communities to find alternative solutions to improve regional power reliability in areas of the network that contain long feeders.
Western Power Executive Manager of Asset Management, Gair Landsborough, said the new $88 million Regional Connect Program aimed to improve power reliability in regional areas that experience frequent power outages on the long feeder lines.
“We understand the inconvenience frequent and prolonged outages can cause regional communities and we’re partnering with them to better understand their felt experience and identify and develop effective alternative solutions,” Mr Landsborough said.
“Our aim is to develop tailored solutions incorporating social impact, economic and environmental factors, existing network infrastructure and recent causes of power outages.”
Mr Landsborough said as part of the program, trials would be undertaken in several regional areas that currently experience reliability challenges.
“The first trial started in Lancelin earlier this year with a community drop-in session where attendees were invited to learn more about Regional Connect and provide feedback on proposed solutions,” Mr Landsborough said.
“Collaboration with the community is essential and drop-in sessions provide the opportunity for people to get involved with the Community Partnered Working Groups, which aim to facilitate out of the box thinking and drive innovation.
“We’re working to identify potential medium and long-term solutions that we can explore further with these groups.
“We’re also aiming to deliver initial works that will bring a quicker improvement in restoration times and a reduction in the average duration of outages.”
Mr Landsborough said the second trial area was Northampton with a community drop-in session taking place at the Northampton Community Centre on 10 September 2024.
“Lancelin and Northampton have some of the highest number of recurring network faults, challenging environmental conditions, and diverse community needs.
“These areas have been selected as they face complex challenges that impact their reliability and conducting trials in these locations will help establish a blueprint of robust solutions that can be rolled out to other regional locations that experience reliability challenges,” Mr Landsborough said
Further trials will be undertaken in the coming months, and the utility will also work with communities in the Shire of Irwin to continue to improve reliability in the region.
The Regional Connect Program is funded through $88 million earmarked by the Economic Regulation Authority WA to address rural long feeder reliability under Western Power’s Access Arrangement 5 (AA5).
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