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Powerline Bushfire Safety

Reducing the risk

The Victorian Government has outlined its work plan to substantially reduce the risk of bushfires caused by powerlines in Victoria.

The work plan will implement recommendations 27 and 32 of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (VBRC) and was developed in response to the recommendations of the Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce.

These measures are expected to reduce the risk of electricity assets starting bushfires by up to 64 per cent over 10 years and strike the right balance between fire risk reduction, power reliability and costs.

Electricity businesses will be required to invest an estimated $500 million on new generation electrical asset protection and control equipment.

The Government will also increase the Safer Electricity Assets Fund that was announced in the 2011-2012 Victorian Budget from $50 million to up to $250 million. Up to $200 million of these funds will be spent on replacing the most dangerous powerlines over the next 10 years. In the first instance, $40 million will be used to address the impact of any reduced supply reliability. The remaining $10 million will be spent on research and development to identify the most cost-effective new technologies and management practices for reducing bushfire risk from electricity assets.

Summer 2011-12

This fire season the Government is making changes to the way electricity networks in high risk areas are managed to reduce the chances of them starting fires. This is the result of the recommendations from the expert Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce, which undertook work recommended by the VBRC.

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. The VBRC found automatic reclosing had the potential to start fires in high risk areas on high risk days and their reclosing function 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. Where it is not possible to rapidly adjust and re-adjust operational settings, such as on some single wire earth return (SWER) lines, electricity distributors will change the settings for a six week period starting on 23 January 2012 (refer box below).

Power will not be cut off in these areas, however, if network faults occur, people may experience more frequent interruptions and longer waits to be reconnected.

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 mail and informed of the actions being taken and what effect it will have on them.

Preparing for the fire season

Regardless of any changes taking place this year, some areas of Victoria may experience power outages at high fire risk times and people who rely heavily on electricity supply need to take steps to be prepared.

Households are advised to:

  • Have a battery powered radio and spare batteries or a wind up radio available to hear alerts and warnings in case power fails.
  • Have a landline with a cord, a fully charges mobile phone as back up and a spare battery.
  • Be prepared for power failure and have a non-electric pump available that can be operated from an alternative water supply such as a swimming pool, concrete or metal tank or dam.
  • Make sure they know the number of their electricity distributor, which can be found on their latest bill, to check for updates on power outages.

 

Adjustment of ACRs on SWER and 22kV lines

On 23 January 2012, for a six week period, 200 manual-change ACRs on SWER lines will be reset so that they do not attempt any recloses in the event of a fault.

There are an estimated 10,000 customers serviced by SWER lines on which these 200 manual change ACRs are located.

For 22kV lines (the vast majority of rural customers) remotely controlled ACRs are already installed. The protection setting on these devices can be changed remotely, and rapidly, in response to changing fire weather conditions. And for years electricity distributors - oversighted by Energy Safe Victoria - have been making these changes.

In areas of highest risk, on total fire ban days (around 10-15 per year), only a single reclose will be allowed. On Code Red days (about one a year) no reclose will be allowed.

In the other rural areas only a single reclose will be allowed (both Total Fire Ban and Code Red days).