Western Power has completed $5 million worth of maintenance and upgrades in the Shire of Cunderdin as part of efforts to increase network capability and flexibility in the Wheatbelt.
The works, which started in January last year, included replacing more than 290 poles, 47km of overhead powerlines and the installation of new LED streetlights and reclosers.
Western Power asset operations executive manager Zane Christmas said the upgrades would help restore power quicker after unplanned outages.
“Increased switching points enable better flexibility in managing the network by allowing our network controllers and crews to isolate a fault and backfeed power supply to customers via an alternative route,” he said.
“We’ve also replaced aging infrastructure in the area to maintain safety and increase the service life of the equipment.”
The upgrades have also enhanced the network’s resilience to major weather events.
“We’ve replaced sections of overhead wires with covered aerial bundle cable, which is more durable, provides a longer service life and is less susceptible to environmental factors,” Mr Christmas said.
“We’re committed to enhancing resilience of the network in regional communities like Cunderdin and Meckering and this substantial investment in infrastructure upgrades reflects that.”
Some planned outages were necessary during the upgrades to ensure safety for residents and crews.
Mr Christmas said the work was divided into stages to reduce impact during cropping season.
“We also connected two temporary generators in Meckering townsite to maintain power supply to homes and businesses where possible,” he said.
“Following the major storm events in January this year, which impacted a significant part of the network, there were some delays to the completion of these works and we thank the community for their understanding and patience.”
It comes after the Cook Government announced it would spend $18m to supply 50 standalone power systems to dozens of regional properties at the end of electricity networks.
A Western Power spokeswoman said while no network could guarantee 100 per cent reliability, the utility was continuously working to minimise power supply interruption duration and frequency.
She said Western Power continued to explore “network augmentation options”, additional resilience measures and supply alternatives for standalone power systems and microgrids, as well as network upgrades.
“The geographic remoteness of some of our regional areas presents reliability challenges due to the distance between assets, feeder length, network configuration and switching capabilities, and exposure to environmental impacts such as bushfires, storms, lightning and animal interference,” the spokeswoman said.
“We work hard to improve the resilience of our network by upgrading distribution feeders and transformers to cope with additional load, particularly in the summer months.
“We’ve refined and improved our load balancing and switching to better distribute local load when needed and allow us to more easily isolate a fault and backfeed in the event of an unplanned outage.”
She said during bushfire season, settings that monitor the network were modified to be more sensitive to ensure assets in extreme bushfire risk areas were managed safely.
The modifications had the greatest impact on regional communities where electricity was supplied by powerlines that went through high and extreme bushfire risk areas, often over long distances.
“When there is a fault or other interference during this period, these safety settings ensure that power is interrupted faster than usual and the power will remain off instead of being automatically restored until a patrol is completed or it is deemed safe to do so following a bushfire risk assessment,” the spokeswoman said.
This reduces the likelihood of starting a fire but may mean outages last longer — particularly if Western Power need to patrol the impacted lines.
https://thewest.com.au/countryman/news/more-wheatbelt-upgrades-as-western-power-finishes-5-million-cunderdin-works-c-14619840
