Ergon Energy customers across regional Queensland had power supply available to their homes, businesses and farms on average for 99.935% of the time last financial year.
Their power supply was interrupted, on average, for 4.5 hours by unplanned outages and 1.28 hours for planned outages.
Chief Executive Ian McLeod said customers experienced 2.8 power supply interruptions on average during the year.
“This represents a 37% decline in the number of outages since 2005-06, coupled with a 36% fall in their average duration in the same period,” he said.
“Some commentators suggest the major investment we have made on our network since the first Somerville inquiry is ‘gold-plating’.
“But what these results show is that the investment has delivered the outcomes required by our customers and regulators.
“However, we also understand the bulk of our customers are now satisfied with the reliability of the network and are more concerned about affordability.
“We recognise that we cannot continue to increase expenditure on the network when demand and consumption are falling and some customers are meeting part of their own power needs through solar PVs.
”As a result, we are committed to reducing our expenditure so the network component of any price increases from 2015-16 is below the level of inflation.
“At the same time, we will maintain the existing standards of reliability across the network and implement targeted, cost-effective improvements in areas where reliability and quality of supply are lagging.”
