Electricity distributor AusNet has spent almost $60 million on vegetation management and maintenance programs in the last 12 months, to prepare the network ready for summer.
AusNet executive general manager distribution, Andrew Linnie, said it’s important that the network is ready for severe weather events.
“This year in the Bairnsdale region our Asset Inspectors, who assess AusNet’s infrastructure to ensure its safe, completed 11,985 pole inspections, with an additional 4055 poles inspected by the helicopter team, a total of 16,040 poles. This work resulted in the identification and completion of 2289 maintenance jobs,” Mr Linnie said.
“Our vegetation team, who are responsible for keeping trees away from powerlines, assessed 42,172 spans (spans being the area between two poles) in Bairnsdale and surrounding areas, identifying maintenance work that was undertaken on 6458 spans.
“This work is essential to help keep the network and the community safe.”
Preparation work comes following a warning from Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) last week for the community to prepare for warmer temperatures
and an increase in fire activity across the state this summer.
EMV advised that a lack of rainfall has resulted in an increased chance of fires across most of western and northeastern Victoria and parts of greater Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula and Southwest Gippsland.
“Summer is a particularly challenging time for electricity customers. On top of the bushfire risk, summer often brings with it intense thunderstorms that can damage infrastructure,” Mr Linnie said.
Every summer, AusNet undertakes an awareness campaign to encourage Victorians to be power prepared and provides outage and energy saving tips so that people can better deal with the impact of potential power outages.
AusNet is particularly focused on helping customers plan for summer storms, which are becoming more frequent and severe as Victoria’s climate changes.
“One of the most important things customers can do is provide their contact details to their electricity retailer. The retailer will then pass these details on to AusNet, so that we can contact them during outages and emergencies,” Mr Linnie said.
“We also recommend customers bookmark or save AusNet’s Outage Tracker on their phone or computer for easy reference: www.outagetracker.com.au. In the event of an outage, the tracker will provide customers with restoration times, helping them to plan.”
