AusNet slammed for storm damage compensation delays

AusNet is being slammed for delays as Victorians left in the dark by “catastrophic” storms are forced to wait longer for compensation.

AusNet has alerted customers of delays in the compensation process from the recent storms Picture: David Crosling

Thousands of Victorians left without power for more than seven days following last week’s catastrophic storms are still waiting to apply for compensation.

The Allan government had said eligible Victorians would be able to apply for prolonged power outage payments of $1920 a week for households and $2927 a week for businesses from Tuesday — one week on from the destructive weather event on February 13.

But on Tuesday night, AusNet — the main supplier affected by the outage — alerted customers that the application process would not be ready until Thursday.

Downed transmission towers in Anakie just outside Melbourne. Picture: supplied

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio lashed the energy provider on Wednesday for failing to provide access to the payments on time, saying she was “not polite” in meetings with the power supplier.

“I absolutely express my real disappointment and frustration and anger,” she said.

“Despite commitments that have been made to the Victorian people to the Victorian population, that they would have this system ready to go … to receive and then start processing applications for those prolonged power outage payments for those eligible that in fact, this system wasn’t ready.”

She urged AusNet to apologise, saying the delay was “not on”.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable,” she said.

Victorian Minister for Energy, Lily D'Ambrosio expressed her frustration at AusNet’s slow compensation process. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascu

AusNet’s website on Wednesday morning notified affected customers that there was a delay.

“We will contact all customers after Thursday 22 February 2024 who may be eligible for this relief payment,” it reads.

“We acknowledge the government’s announcement indicating processing of applications from Tuesday 20 February.

“However, to ensure our systems were ready to enable payment transactions there is a delay to Thursday for applications to open, which won’t impact our first payment run.”

In a statement released on Wednesday, AusNet apologised for “any confusion” caused to customers.

“We apologise for any confusion regarding the timeframe,” it read.

“AusNet contacted customers who may be eligible for the government’s prolonged power outage payment via SMS on Tuesday 20 February 2024.

“Applications can be submitted via our website from Thursday 22 February, and we will send messages directly to customers to inform them about how to do this.”

Ms D’Ambrosio said 1485 customers were without power on Wednesday morning, including 49 people who are power dependent.

“We’ve actually seen the restoration of 99.5 per cent of Victorians that were disconnected from their power supply during that catastrophic weather event last Tuesday,“ she said.

She said power dependent customers were being prioritised.

Ms D’Ambrosio said the market operator had assured the government that there was “more than enough electricity supply” to meet the state’s needs this week as further extreme weather rolls through the state.

She warned Victorians to be alert with “strong winds and storms” coupled with damaged and weakened trees threatening to create further chaos.

SES crews cleaning up storm damage in Melbourne. Picture: Victoria SES/AFP.

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said “extreme temperatures” were expected in the Wimmera, the southwest and central Victoria, which will elevate the risk of grass fires

“We expect the rest of the state to be fine,” she said.

“I’d use this opportunity to remind people that we are still in our fire season and because of the events last week ... we’re experiencing a lot of drying out of the grasslands.”

Ms Symes, who noted emergency services would be on standby, said storms were also predicted across the state.

“We are not expecting the winds like we did last week, but we are expecting storm activity,” she said.

“Storm activity is incredibly difficult to predict, so what we plan for is the worst.”