Unplanned outages as Canberra’s electricity network struggles to cope with record demand

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Canberra's electricity network has been struggling to cope with record demand for electricity this winter. High heater use, population growth and a push towards electrification mean there has been an uptick in unplanned outages this cold season.

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00:00A fridge stocked with cheese worth thousands of dollars, ageing to perfection in the right

00:08conditions.

00:09Pretty much everything needs to be kept below 4 degrees.

00:11If it stays above that temperature for a long period of time it needs to be thrown out.

00:16Which means all's well until the power goes out.

00:19It's like immediate stress.

00:20I think the monetary value comes secondary to me.

00:24I think the food wastage is the first thing.

00:28It's really sad to throw out that much food when you're just filling up a skip in with

00:34food that could be consumed.

00:37Record high demand for electricity this winter has led to a jump in unplanned outages.

00:43The reason is simple, it's really cold.

00:45A lot of people who might not use their heater the whole night generally turn the heater on

00:51and when it starts to get close to the network's capacity if there is any underlying issues

00:56with the network they start to show up and then might trip the feeder.

01:00Suburbs in the Malonglo Valley and Gungahlin have been especially affected by outages which

01:06have jumped by 20% compared to June last year.

01:10Some residents have reported multiple outages per week.

01:14Both areas are growing areas in the ACT.

01:18So Malonglo Valley, the growth out there has been quite close to our capacity on the network.

01:25And while some batteries have been added to the network, they're only temporary.

01:29The added pressure doesn't come as a shock to experts because of Canberra's population

01:34growth and a shift away from gas appliances.

01:37As some of our cities and regional areas are growing, we need to deal with that by putting

01:41in more infrastructure.

01:42Part of that infrastructure is electricity and keeping up with that is hard sometimes.

01:47Now I think that's the role of the energy companies whether they're privately owned

01:50or government owned.

01:51Plans to upgrade Canberra's network are underway but won't offer relief this season.

01:56We're currently building a brand new zones substation which will be online before next

02:02winter before we see the next peaks.

02:05Keeping up with demand so Canberrans can keep warm or cool.

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