Bushfire safety upgrades for Mornington Peninsula as United Energy encourages customers to prepare for extreme conditions
Households and businesses are urged to prepare for the possibility of power outages in extreme conditions this summer as the Bureau of Meteorology issues predictions of “warmer than average days and nights.”
Summer is traditionally a season that brings extreme weather events, such as high heat, strong winds and lightning, which can damage the power network and lead to localised power outages.
United Energy Head of Customer Experience Adam Nason said now was the time for everyone to plan ahead and know how to prepare for potential power outages.
“Our specialist teams work year-round to make sure our network is prepared for extreme summer months and are ready to respond safely and quickly if the power does go out. We are also asking everyone to act too by making preparing for power outages part of their emergency plan.”
United Energy has recently completed a major safety upgrade of the network in the Red Hill area, one of the highest bushfire risk areas of the network.
Crews replaced more than 1500 metres of bare wire overhead powerlines in Red Hill South with technology to further improve safety.
The program involved replacing 11 poles and 1200m of powerline with covered conductor – a form of insulated powerline that dramatically reduces the risk of a spark if powerlines hit the ground.
Another 300m of bare wire powerline was replaced with aerial bundled cable – a product that combines multiple low voltage conductors into an insulated bundle, again improving safety.
This work is part of a broad suite of works to continuously inspect and upgrade the network, which includes maintaining more than 13,000 kilometres of powerlines, 215,000 power poles and other infrastructure.
“We are always looking at ways to build on how we keep our network safe and reliable, and we’ve already had success with covered conductor technology in other parts of the network in recent years. This is all about getting the network ready for the hottest time of year and keep power safe and reliable for our customers.”
Other activities United Energy has conducted to prepare for summer:
- Using LiDAR technology mounted on helicopters to inspect vegetation across our network. With an expanded helicopter fleet we completed our full year inspection program months ahead of schedule.
- Cut trees away from more than 33,000 powerline spans (the line between two power poles) across Melbourne’s east, south east and the Mornington Peninsula, including around 9000 spans in the highest risk areas.
- Upgraded more than 30 low voltage circuits and distribution substations to support growing demand.
If power is affected, customers will be updated via SMS, through our outage map or through our Victorian customer contact centre. Customers are encouraged to sign up to outage alerts.
Advice on how customers can prepare for power outages:
Be Safe.
- Have a back-up plan ready if you rely on life support equipment or need electrical items to care for babies, the disabled, elderly or pets.
- Plan to keep food safe. Set your fridge to 5 degrees (5°C) or below. An unopened fridge will keep food for about four hours.
- Have plenty of drinking water available if your supply relies on power.
Be Smart.
- Sign up for SMS notifications about power supplies and choose your preferences for who you want to receive them here.
- Download the VicEmergency app and keep emergency phone numbers handy.
- Know how to connect computers and tablets to your mobile phone’s hotspot.
- Back-up computer files.
- Know how to open electric garage doors and gates manually.
Be Ready.
- Charge mobile phones, laptops and portable back-up batteries.
- If you plan to use a generator, make sure it’s fully fuelled, operational and that you know how to safely operate it.
- Have a battery-powered radio available for real time news updates.
- Keep battery-powered lamps or torches handy.
- For media inquiries, please contact United Energy’s media line on (03) 9683 4342.