Horizon Power apologises for recent power outages experienced by customers in Kununurra. Some of these power interruptions were planned as part of scheduled work currently being conducted in the town to increase the capacity and reliability of our network.
Increasing capacity and reliability
A $5.5m upgrade of five distribution feeders from 6.6kV to 22kV is underway. The upgrade of the line running from the back of the power station along Bandicoot Drive and out to the Diversion Dam was completed in July. From August 17 network upgrade work will begin in the town centre including St Joseph’s School, along Chestnut Drive, past the hospital on Coolibah Drive and through the light industrial area back to the power station. Customers impacted by this work will be advised well in advance before their power supply is interrupted.
This work will continue over an 18 month period. Horizon Power appreciates that interruptions are inconvenient during at any time of year and we will continue to work with you to give as much notice as possible ahead of planned outages. It’s important that we get as much of this work done during the dry season, which we appreciate is a busy time for our customers. In addition to this work our crews are continuing to carry out routine maintenance and customer-funded work in specific areas and we will advise customers of any planned interruptions.
Fruit bats driving us batty
In recent weeks, customers along our rural feeders have experienced a high number of short, usually 5-10 second interruptions. In almost all cases, these have been caused by wildlife, particularly fruit bats coming into contact with our infrastructure. This brief outage is what we refer to as an “auto-reclose” and is when our protection devices restore power once a fault has been rectified without manual intervention from our crews (ie the bat has fallen off the line).
When the fault cannot be rectified automatically, longer interruptions will occur and will require our crews to respond.
Generation issues
We apologise for the recent unplanned power interruptions to the entire town. We are currently investigating the cause of these with our Independent Power Provider.
Enquires on the above can be directed to Retail and Community Manager – Roanna Edwards on 9166 4700.