AusNet has ramped up vegetation management and infrastructure maintenance following warnings of an early fire season across drought-affected Victorian regions.
In the last 12 months, AusNet has invested more than $331 million on network maintenance and vegetation management to keep the network and community safe.
AusNet Executive General Manager Distribution, Andrew Linnie, said it is important that the energy network is ready for summer and severe weather events.
“We have been working all year to prepare the electricity network for what the authorities have told us is likely to be a hot, dry summer,” Mr Linnie said.
“We have invested $273 million on network maintenance and replacement works, with an additional $59 million on vegetation management.”
The preparation work comes following a warning from Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) for the community to prepare for an early start to the fire season, with an increased risk of fires in drought-affected areas across Victoria.
EMV advised that low rainfall across the west of the state, west central and through south-west Gippsland have resulted in an increased chance of fires due to the increased fuel load.
“Summer is a particularly challenging time for electricity customers. On top of the bushfire risk, summer often brings with it intense thunderstorms that can damage infrastructure,” Mr Linnie said.
“AusNet has also supported the creation of over 50 community resilience hubs within its network area in the past 12 months, as part of our Energy Resilience Community Fund, with 20 hubs now ready for community use during emergency events.”
This year across the AusNet network, asset inspectors completed 76,030 pole inspections, with an additional 44,800 poles inspected by the helicopter team, totalling 120,830 poles. This work resulted in the identification and completion of 57,718 maintenance jobs.
The vegetation team assessed 322,620 spans across the network, identifying maintenance work that was undertaken on 67,930 spans.
