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Tim Bull met with David Smales AusNet CEO to address customer communication and government-mandated vegetation clearing after Gippsland outages from wild storms

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By news@gippsland - 26th February 2024 - Back to News

Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull met with AusNet Services management last week, to discuss system improvements after the recent power outages across the region. "The reason for the meeting was to make sure we have a better communication platform in place when future events impact our region. It was a forthright, but positive discussion. The national Chief Executive, David Smales, has only been in the job for a matter of weeks, but was genuine about trying to make the system better," said Mr Bull.

Tim Bull met with AusNet Chief Executive, David Smales, to discuss customer communication and system improvements along with government regulated vegetation clearing buffer zones, after recent power outages in East Gippsland

Power outage concerns

Mr Bull also said, "I raised concern that some towns that had issues like Mallacoota, Genoa and Lake Tyers Beach never appeared at any stage on their outage tracker, yet towns like Paynesville and Eagle Point, that never lost power, were listed as without connection for days and in some cases lost accommodation bookings."

"In short, the reason was the regular more accurate system collapsed under the weight of enquiry and this was a substitute platform that Mr Smales agreed was inadequate. The website that usually provides more specific data was set up to cope with one million hits in a day, but it had 3.5 million in five hours and buckled. Mr Smales guaranteed this would be rectified."

"The other request I made, that has been taken on board, is that when we have major outages, AusNet provides a person of contact in each local government Area, someone who knows the local towns and geography and can answer specific questions or come back to you," he said.

Local contact request

Mr Bull added, "I have asked for a person in each area to be made a point of contact for business and tourism associations, chambers of commerce, MP's, councils etc, rather than be talking to a comms team in Melbourne that has no local knowledge. I am very respectful that in the early days when assessments are being done, few guarantees can be provided, but it is about having that point of contact."

"Another topical point was the vegetation removal criteria. The latest event showed that trees outside the clearance / buffer space caused a lot of the problems. For example, if a buffer of 10 metres is provided and a 20-metre-tall tree, two metres outside the buffer falls, it is going to put the power out. This is government regulated, but I advised Mr Smales we would be happy to support changes that would result in a more secure power supply," Mr Bull said.

Pictures from Tim Bull MP website.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com