Commissioner at the Australian Energy Market Commission, Michelle Shepherd has been appointed to lead an independent review into the power outages which affected communities across the South West Interconnected System from 24 to 28 December.
Announcing the review, Minister for Energy, Bill Johnston said during the peak of the power outages on Boxing Day, which were triggered by a four-day heatwave, approximately 34,000 households and businesses were without power.
Mr Johnston said some of the most impacted areas were Baldivis, Dawesville, Clarkson, Mindarie, South Yunderup, Roleystone, Kelmscott and Bouvard.
He said high bushfire risk conditions exacerbated the situation, with Western Power repairs being delayed until it was safe for crews to carry out the required work.
The Minister said he was pleased that Ms Shepherd (pictured), who had more than 20 years’ experience in energy policy and regulation in Western Australia, would lead the six-week review.
“The review will assess Western Power’s operational response to the outages compared to industry best practice,” Mr Johnston said.
“The review will examine why the outages happened, Western Power’s planning and preventative measures taken in preparation for Christmas, and its restoration response,” he said.
The Minister said the scope of the review would include Western Power’s network and operational planning, network design, load forecasting, asset management and maintenance.
“Areas that experienced repeat losses of power during the Christmas period, or have had a history of power issues, will be closely examined,” he said.
“It’s understandable how frustrating it was for the tens of thousands of customers that didn’t have power during the very hot Christmas holidays.”
Mr Johnston said the report, with key findings and recommendations, was expected to be completed by 14 March and he would not comment further until then.
