Major network maintenance for Condobolin and Burcher

Published on 20 March 2023

Essential Energy will soon complete major maintenance works on the electricity network that supplies power to Condobolin, Burcher and the surrounding areas to ensure the ongoing reliability of the local power supply.

Operations Manager Central, Andrew Hinchcliffe, said the maintenance project will see more than 500 tasks completed over five consecutive days.

“A total of 521 tasks will be completed during this program of works including the replacement of 125 power poles and 53 pole crossarms, four transformers, and various other network components which have reached end of life,” Andrew said.

“As these areas are serviced by one main powerline, electricity can’t be re-routed from an alternative source, so completing maintenance is crucial to ensure the power network remains safe and reliable,” Andrew said.

To enable the work to be completed safely, a series of planned power outages have been scheduled daily between 8:00am and 4:00pm from Saturday, 25 March until Wednesday, 29 March 2023.

Customers will receive Essential Energy’s standard outage notifications of the dates and times of outages affecting them.

“Significant planning has been undertaken to complete a large scope of works during these outages, including bringing in 15 crews and specialist equipment from surrounding depots to help our local crews to complete the work as quickly and safely as possible,” Andrew said.

The scheduled works are reliant on suitable weather conditions and may be postponed if the conditions are unfavourable or any unforeseen circumstances arise.

“We appreciate that planned power outages can be inconvenient for some customers however they are necessary to ensure a safe and reliable power supply and to also allow communities to grow,” Andrew said.

Media Release supplied by Essential Energy.