POWERLINES in high fire danger areas on the Mornington Peninsula could be placed underground as part of a package of new “resilience measures” being tested and considered by electricity distributor United Energy. The distributor is looking at how it can make its network in Melbourne’s south-east and the peninsula stronger and more resilient in the face of increasingly frequent severe weather events.
United Energy representatives last week met with community members in Red Hill to hear their views on the proposals and road test a range of scenarios as part of a five-year business plan, with a draft to be submitted to the Australian Energy Regulator in August.
Other measures under consideration include increasing the number of emergency response vehicles; expand the fleet of mobile generators to temporarily power communities; using fire-proof-wrap or replacing wooden poles in high fire danger areas; increase the heights of powerlines in flood prone areas.
United Energy says the measures follow three years of community engagement on the peninsula and in the south-east, where customers have experienced the impacts of a range of major weather events. The company’s regulation general manager, Renate Vogt, said the session at Red Hill was an opportunity to hear directly from community members about the challenges they faced when extreme weather events impacted the power network “and what they want us to invest in”. “As we are experiencing more intense weather events, we need to prioritise investments that build and maintain stronger networks and communities,” Vogt said. “Just as more extreme weather is increasing the risk of prolonged outages, our customers are becoming more dependent on electricity than ever before.”
United Energy said it will continue seeking feedback on proposed “investment ideas and activities” on such topics as renewable energy and affordability. Proposed solutions, associated costs and benefits will be “tested” with customers before the draft plans are published in August. The final plans will be submitted to the Australian Energy Regulator for approval in January 2025.
Details: engage.unitedenergy.com.au
First published in the Mornington News – 19th March 2024
