Bushfire plan: Powercor to replace 7000 poles a year across Victoria’s west

Powercor has been under pressure to ramp up its pole replacement program after one sparked a fire in 2018.

Keeping watch: Ecklin South dairy farmer Simon Craven says Powercor is taking the cheap option of staking “way too many” power poles, rather than replacing them.

Western Victoria’s electricity network operator Powercor has committed to replace or reinforce at least 7000 of its ageing power poles each year until 2026, a massive increase on less than 1000 poles in 2018.

Source: Supplied

Powercor has been under pressure from Energy Safe Victoria and the community to ramp up its pole replacement program, ever since one collapsed sparking the Garvoc St Patrick’s Day fire in 2018.

Victoria’s Energy Safety Regulator provisionally approved Powercor’s bushfire mitigation plan last week, which details how the company will replace and reinforce at least 34,650 poles over the next five years.

ESV is awaiting more detail from the network operator before it finalises its approval.

But Powercor is still obliged to release the plan publicly.

The Weekly Times reported last month more than 100,000 ageing power poles in Powercor’s network, delivering electricity to western Victoria’s highest bushfire-risk zones, were at risk of rot and collapse.

One of the big issues farmers and townspeople in high bushfire risk zones want to know is how much of the power pole work over the next five years involves replacing poles versus reinforcing them with a stake.

Crack of daylight: A split Powercor power pole at Macarthur in western Victoria, where daylight can be seen on the other side.

It is understood it is far cheaper for Powercor to simply stake power poles than replace them.

A 2019 ESV technical report into Powercor’s sustainable wood pole safety management program, showed the cost of replacing a pole was $9000 versus $1000 to stake one.

A Powercor spokesman said “the breakdown between replacements and reinforcements depends on the analysis for each region as we rollout the program over the next five years.

“Overall, the average planned for 2022 is for 60 per cent replacements and 40 per cent reinforced.”

Ecklin South dairy farmer Simon Craven, who has been campaigning for more power pole replacements since the St Patrick’s Day fires said 40 per cent (about 14,000 staked poles) was “way too many”.

“It was staked pole that fell over and started the (Garvoc) St Patrick’s Day fire,” he said.

Mr Craven said farmers also wanted Powercor to report back every year on how many poles it was staking versus replacing.

Evidence of how poor the condition is of some power poles can be seen in images of a power pole on Macarthur farmer Hugh McFarlane’s property.

Mr McFarlane said the pole was split two ways, creating a cross hair of cracks, through which daylight could be seen on the other side.