Powercor, AusNet begin bushfire recovery

Victoria’s energy infrastructure is facing major rehabilitation challenges as conditions ease and the recovery begins after multiple bushfires ripped through local communities.

One person died and more than three hundred buildings were destroyed on a catastrophic day of fire conditions on Friday when major fires were fought at Longwood in the Strathbogie Ranges, Walwa near the NSW border, Harcourt near Castlemaine and Natimuk in Victoria’s west.

There were multiple other fires stretching CFA crews to their limit while consecutive days of 40°C temperatures and high winds also challenged power infrastructure and telecommunication connections.

At its peak on Friday there were reports of up to 30,000 homes without power with crews across the state working to restore downed powerlines. However, many areas remained inaccessible to crews with conditions too dangerous to enter firegrounds.

On Monday, AusNet said it still didn’t have access to all parts of our network, making recovery efforts very difficult.

“We will continue to work with emergency agencies to gain safe access to areas where the fire has passed through so that we can assess damage to power infrastructure and repair or rebuild the network,” the utility said.

“The rebuild may still take some time to complete.”

Around 3400 bushfire-affected homes, farms and businesses in the AusNet network have been without power, with the utility setting up a dedicated Bushfire Support Line (1300 561 171) for affected customers.

AusNet is also investigating potential for mobile generators to be situated in some of the worst impacted communities where mains power might not be able to restored for some time. Emergency Management Mobile Assistance Vehicles (EMMAs) will also mobilise, providing information and support and helping people charge their devices and access the internet.

Powercor is meanwhile assessing the damage to its network in the west of the state, including around Skipton to see what can be restored.

In a release, Powercor said more than 200 field workers are on the ground today across fire-affected areas in Harcourt, Natimuk, Cobram and Skipton/Streatham as power restoration efforts continue.

Crews are focused on rebuilding large parts of the power network destroyed by bushfires and restoring power to about 1280 customers, with most in the Ravenswood and Harcourt region.

Since Friday, Powercor teams have replaced more than 150 poles and rebuilt large parts of the electricity network damaged by fire.

More than 100 poles will be replaced over the next few days, and teams are continuing to access fire-affected areas to assess other damage.

Powercor said it expected to have customers back on by the end of Wednesday.

“However, these estimated restoration times may change based on any further assessments by our team and we will keep customers updated via our outage map, SMS, contact centre and other channels,” the power provider said.