Perenjori residents cop third power outage in a week

Ongoing power outages are causing major headaches for farmers in the Mid West, who are demanding Western Power devise a permanent solution to the decades-old problem.

The matter came to a head last week when Perenjori copped two lengthy outages, forcing the closure of the local CBH bin for two days.

Farmers in the midst of a record harvest had no choice but to truck grain to Carnamah, Morawa and Mingenew, leaving headers parked up.

Perenjori lost power from the afternoon of Sunday, December 5, to the following night, before being hit with another outage last Tuesday afternoon.

That lasted more than 24 hours and was followed by yet another outage last Thursday afternoon that was not restored until Friday morning.

Western Power would not comment on what caused the outages, which left homes, farms, businesses and the local swimming pool without power in 40C-plus conditions.

Local farmer Brad Cannon said this was a major concern because the power seemed to cut out every time there was a heatwave.

“My biggest concern, and the concern around town, is that if they don’t know what’s causing it, how many more outages are we going to have for the rest of summer,” he said.

“Since harvest started I think we’re up to our fifth outage now, with two of those most recent ones being for an extended period.”

While the Cannons have their own backup generators on the farm, most residents in the town — which sits at the end of the South West Interconnected System electricity network — do not.

The previous Liberal National Government sought to address the problem in 2017 by installing the Perenjori Battery Energy Storage System.

However, Perenjori Shire President and local farmer Chris King said the system served little purpose during extended outages.

“It’s designed for a very short period; four hours is what it lasted on Sunday and then it shut down, and it wasn’t able to re-charge after that because the power wasn’t on long enough,” he said.

“That in itself is quite damning of the system.”

Mr King said power outages had been a problem for many years but had been more frequent since cyclone Seroja in April.

He said locals were becoming increasingly frustrated with Western Power’s apparent “inattention” to the issue.

“We believe the powerlines between Perenjori and Morawa have been damaged in the cyclone and there hasn’t been a concerted effort put into fixing that area,” Mr King said.

“There was no incident that occurred for the power to go off, it was just hot weather, and facilities shouldn’t fall apart just because it’s hot.

“There’s a lot of standalone systems going in the eastern end of the Shire, but I don’t believe a standalone system is suitable for a town site.

“(Western Power) need to invest some money in the actual line that runs from Three Springs to Perenjori, whether it’s between Three Springs and Morawa or between Morawa and Perenjori.”

But WA Nationals member for Moore Shane Love, who has campaigned for years to address power woes in the Mid West — including at Dongara and Mullewa — said locally generated power was the solution.

“We need more standalone units and a program of just doing away with all those wires crisscrossing the countryside,” he said.

“The system has to change.”

Mr Love said relying on a “spaghetti junction of wires coming up from Collie” was an outdated system that worked “60 years ago” but was no longer sufficient.

He and Mr King also said Western Power should “urgently” review its policy that forbids staff from restoring power on total fire ban days.

Mr Love said while nobody wanted to see paddocks catch fire, the policy was unreasonable.

“We need a bit more understanding that power is an essential service to people and it’s important to get it back on,” he said.

“I’ve taken it to successive emergency services and energy ministers over the years but they don’t live out here, they don’t understand.

“We want them to understand there are risks to these communities in not having power for four days in a row in 40 degree heat.”

Mr Love said the Northampton district was also without power on December 4 and 5 when temperatures in the district were 40 degrees.

“On December 8, outages extended from Perenjori, Wongan Hills, Cadoux, Kalannie, Goodlands, Morawa, Arrino, Arrowsmith, Carnamah, Latham, Victoria Plains to Green Head and Leeman,” he said.

“I understand the Perenjori district has endured 88 hours without power.

“In all cases, power restoration was delayed because there was a total fire ban in place.”

Mr Love said Western Power had a works exemption under section 22C of the Bush Fires Act 1954, but chose not to exercise the right, “instead threatening the health and wellbeing of residents, interrupting business and risking the welfare of livestock where water can not be pumped”.

“Local fire brigades are well-equipped to respond to fires that may eventuate from restoration works, and the Western Power website details the controls put in place during a total fire ban such as the requirement for a fire suppression unit or a nearby water source,” he said.

Last week’s outages prompted Western Power to deploy back-up generators to Perenjori in case of further blackouts.

A Western Power spokeswoman said restoration of power to the area was delayed due to severe fire weather conditions.

“We understand the community’s frustration and apologise for the delay in restoration,” she said.

“We know extended outages are inconvenient and frustrating, but we need to do everything possible during these challenging conditions to reduce the chance of a bushfire occurring.”