As part of our commitment to improve land application power connection timeframes, we’ve reviewed our land development process in collaboration with industry representatives to identify opportunities to improve our service timeframes and refine our overall customer experience.
In mid-May, we invited land development stakeholders to attend a full day workshop to share the outcomes of the review, and together develop potential solutions and strategies to address key areas. Attendees included property developers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), DevelopmentWA and Property Council of WA.
Workshop Outcomes
A proposed process was workshopped at the event and feedback collated. The next steps include:
- Assess the proposed processes against applicable legislation, regulations, industry standards and/or codes of practice.
- Present the outcomes and draft recommendations to the UDIA Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Group.
- Agree on proposed changes, with Western Power to give final approvals.
- Develop an implementation plan including time horizons so all impacted stakeholders can appropriately manage changes.
Immediate Actions
Early clearance was a key topic raised by attendees at the workshop. As such, Western Power has identified and will implement the following as a one-off solution to support industry in obtaining their clearances.
- We’ve completed a preliminary review of all submitted Design Conformance Reviews (DCR) with a PC date within the next 3 months and contacted customers if their project can be offered pre-DCR for clearance subject to a conditional approval on their quote.
- For projects identified as critical however are not eligible for a pre-DCR, developers have been given a timeframe for DCR review of compliance.
- The assessment for pre-DCR is risk based to ensure that we meet our under the Electricity (Network Safety) Regulations 2015, the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 and all other applicable legislation, regulations, industry standards and/or codes of practice.
We’ve contacted developers with their specific projects that meet these criteria with a personal update.
We understand the challenges the land development industry has encountered over the past 12 months and are committed to working with the community and industry to deliver safe and reliable power, energy products and services to meet their energy needs.