Ergon has made the decision to suspend all non-critical maintenance that would normally require a planned power interruption, in light of so many Australians staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ergon Executive General Manager Community, Customer and Corporate Affairs, Michael Dart, said less urgent jobs that would usually require planned power outages have been placed on the backburner.
“The community currently has enough on its plate without having to worry about planning for power outages that can potentially wait a couple of extra months,” Mr Dart said.
“So, to ensure people working from home or in self-isolation have minimal electricity disruptions, any scheduled maintenance on the power network that doesn’t present an immediate safety risk and requires an outage will be shelved until measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 are reduced.”
Mr Dart said any works prompted by potential safety issues or immediate threats to the security of the local power supply will still go ahead even if power interruptions are required. In these cases, residents will still receive at least four days’ written notice.
Electricity account holders can also register with Ergon for free SMS notifications about outages by logging onto ergon.com.au/selfservice and following the instructions.
Mr Dart said that although Ergon crews were temporarily stepping away from some planned works, they would still be busy as ever ensuring a safe and reliable electricity supply to customers and communities.
“For Ergon crews it will be as close to business as usual as possible under these unprecedented circumstances,” he said.
Ergon teams will continue tasks including:
- Emergency fault repairs
- Critical maintenance
- Power restoration
- Connections of new properties
- Reconnections of existing or newly tenanted properties
