Eyre Peninsula Mayors, CEOs and RDAWEP met with the Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis and the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) on 24 January 2017 to discuss issues relating to recent power outages in the region.
The council representatives raised a range of issues at today’s meeting, including:
• The costs to businesses of power outages
• Concerns that infrastructure is aging
• The impact of outages on essential services
• The quality of communication and updates about outages
• Mobile phone coverage during outages
The Minister has asked the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) to investigate how electricity companies can improve power reliability on the Eyre Peninsula.
ESCOSA will investigate and make recommendations on what measures can be taken to incentivise the private owners of the transmission and distribution networks, Electranet and SA Power Networks, to upgrade current infrastructure and reconnect supply quicker after damaging storm events. The Office of the Technical Regulator will provide advice on the technical aspects of the investigation.
ESCOSA will also investigate and report on the costs associated with each potential reliability measure they recommend and who would be required to bear those costs.