Frequent power outages irk hills residents

By CASEY NEILL
MORE residents have come forward with complaints and concerns about frequent power outages throughout the Dandenongs.
On 22 May, the Mail reported that The Patch resident Roger Willsher had slammed SP AusNet for providing unreliable power supplies to people living in the hills.
But SP AusNet said it had invested money towards providing a better service for its customers.
The long-term Yarra Ranges resident said he was concerned and frustrated at constant power outages that were not only a nuisance for the households affected, but also costly.
Mr Willsher appealed for SP AusNet to look into the issue and fix the problems.
Cockatoo resident Rob Angus agreed with Mr Willsher’s comments and said power outages in his town were also “appalling”.
“SP AusNet had recently performed some work on a power pole in Kitchener Parade, where I live,” he said.
“It appeared that since this happened, there was an increase in blackouts.”
Mr Angus emailed SP AusNet to find out whether the work was responsible for the increase.
“A typical response came which alerted me to all the reasons blackouts occur,” he said.
“I think after living in the Dandenongs for around 30 years, I am well aware of these.”
He told SP AusNet this and repeated his original question.
“Once again they ignored my question and told me that blackouts can occur at any time and not just in bad weather,” he said.
“I gave up as it was obvious that I was wasting my time.”
Mr Angus encouraged other residents to stand up for their rights and apply public pressure to SP AusNet.
On the Mail’s Facebook page, Selby resident Julie Howard-Whale said she always had trouble with her electricity supply.
“Constant drop-outs or what I have been told are ‘brown-outs’ killed my PC hard drive twice,” she said.
“I’ve been told brown outs can be worse than surges as they gradually wear down the motors on your electrical goods, yet most of us are protected for surges.”
Ms Howard-Whale said her home had completely lost power about six times since last November, once recently for 23 hours, but quite often for about four to six hours.
“Plus constant ‘drop-outs’ and brown-outs, which don’t always eventuate into complete power outs,” she said.
“The power just goes on and off several times or lights go yellow and dull.
“How can you fix these problems given that electricity companies will generally not provide good infrastructure unless they are forced to?”
Mr Willsher said he had lost computer data, had to go without heating, had no hot water, and missed television programs.
His daughter, who lives in Belgrave, recently returned home from a holiday to find her circuit breaker had tripped in a power interruption, leaving her fridge and freezer contents to thaw. His friends, also Belgrave residents, had a similar experience.
An SP AusNet spokesperson said it is taking measures to prevent more blackouts from occurring.
“We are continuing to invest in upgrading our powerlines to aerial bundle cables, which insulates our lines to reduce faults from objects touching them,” he said.
“We’ve also undertaken animal proofing and installing Distribution Feeder Automation (DFA) switches, which allows SP AusNet to restore electricity to customers within a minute from alternate supplies in the event of an outage.
“Despite this, disruptions to electricity supply from faults – caused by trees, branches or bark falling on our electrical assets, lightning strikes and animal interference – cannot be prevented.”