The Victorian Government does not plan to cut off power during periods of high bushfire risk (as occured in South Australia recently).
Where it is not possible to rapidly adjust and re-adjust safety settings, such as on some single wire earth return (SWER) lines, electricity distributors will change the settings for a six-week period which has been determined by the Fire Services Commissioner.
This fire season, this period commences 23 January 2012.Herald Sun
The recent announcement of the Coalition Government's response to the report of the Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce and recommendations 27 and 32 of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission makes no change whatsoever to existing arrangements concerning pre-emptive disconnection of supply.
While Energy Safe Victoria has always had the legal power to direct distribution companies to cut off supply, this would be an absolute last resort.
This step has not been taken in the past in Victoria and there is no expectation that this will change.
What the Coalition Government is doing is making some changes to the way electricity networks in high risk areas are managed.
This is the result of the recommendations by the expert Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce, which undertook work recommended by the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (VBRC) to improve the fire safety of electricity assets.
Most Victorians will not be affected by these changes. Of those that are, most will not notice any impact on the reliability of supply at all as a result of these changes.
The changes relate to the operation of automatic circuit reclosers (ACRs), which automatically reconnect power after an outage caused by a line fault. The VBRC found automatic reclosing had the potential to start fires in high risk areas on high risk days and should be suppressed at times of greatest risk.
Safety settings for ACRs will now be made more sensitive on total fire ban and code red days.
This does not mean people's power will be cut off in these areas, but they may experience longer waits to be reconnected if network faults occur. If this does occur it will be due to an electric fault occurring in conditions highly likely to start a major bushfire.
Once the roll-out of new generation electrical asset protection and control equipment (automatic circuit reclosers and rapid earth fault current limiters) is completed, estimated to cost $500 million, average supply reliability will be improved over current practice.
This is because the number of false alarms will be reduced. In future, supply disruptions will be limited to instances of genuine safety concern.
Customers on SWER lines will be contacted by their electricity distributor by mail and informed of the actions being taken and what effect it will have on them.
Distribution companies will also be working with the CFA to inform affected communities through the CFA's existing community engagement program.
More general messages about reliability of supply in bushfire prone areas have been included in this year's fire communications, including in the Fire Ready insert in the Herald Sun.
The Coalition Government is conscious of the potential impact on supply of implementing the stronger safety requirements arising out of the Royal Commission's recommendation.
$40 million out of the $750 million safety upgrade will be will be used to address the impact on the most vulnerable Victorians of reduced supply reliability associated with better electricity network bushfire control systems.
The Department of Human Services and distribution companies already maintain lists of vulnerable customers including those for whom disruptions to power supply can be lifethreatening due to medical conditions, and this work will continue.
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