Causes
We work hard to keep the lights on however for a number of reasons your power supply may be interrupted, resulting in a power outage.
Often outages are caused by events outside our control. For example, during storms, branches and debris can be blown into powerlines, while during bushfires power poles can be burnt and powerlines affected by the heat.
We also carry out maintenance on the electricity network that may result in an outage.
Common causes of power outages include:
- vehicle or machinery accidents
- high winds, lightning strikes and storms
- debris or vegetation hitting powerlines
- animal life, such as birds or possums coming into contact with network equipment
- vandalism
- bushfires
- equipment failure
- wiring or appliance faults on your property.
If your electricity supply is interrupted, then we work as safely and quickly as possible to restore power. Our emergency response teams work 24 hours a day seven days a week to fix faults that may occur.
While we are prepared to respond to power outages when they occur, we ask that you are also prepared. For example, we recommend that people who live in high fire risk areas have access to a generator.
If you see fallen powerlines or hazards on the electricity network, stay clear and make the safe call to our 24/7 emergency line on 13 13 51.
Pole top fires can happen when there is a run of very hot, dry and windy days followed by a sudden misty, cold front.
Humidity and light rain can combine with dust built up on insulators, resulting in tracks of dirt that can allow electricity to spark, in some cases eventually resulting in metal fixtures heating to a point that causes a fire.
We have preventative pole top fire mitigation programs like washing and siliconing insulators to remove built up dust and insulator replacement. Washing and Siliconing insulators prevents the dust and pollution building up, and we give priority to high bushfire risk areas.
With our network spanning a vast distance and incorporating hundreds of thousands of poles, we prioritise mitigation treatments based on risk.
Pole top fires are not unique to WA and due to environmental conditions can cause issues for electricity networks.
We are often asked why we don’t underground more powerlines to prevent these occurrences. We work with the State Government, local councils and land developers to convert overhead power to underground where it makes economic sense to, as undergrounding power can be much more expensive than building and maintaining overhead infrastructure.