Our stories Summer and bushfire preparedness Every year before summer, Western Power
These measures build resilience and help reduce the risk of faults on the network. In the event of weather-induced faults, Western Power has resources available to respond, including having emergency generators on standby. While 100% reliability cannot be guaranteed, we’re finding new ways to minimise outages by bolstering the network where possible to maintain our 99.92 per cent reliability record.
embarks on a comprehensive package of works to ensure the network is prepared for summer, and implements bushfire prevention and general emergency readiness actions. Western Power undertakes extensive bushfire mitigation work and has detailed plans in place. Each spring, a bushfire preparedness team completes a pre-summer program of work across the network including vegetation management, condition-based asset maintenance, implementing auto reclose minimisation (automatically closes a breaker after it has been opened due to a fault) and operational procedures with the aim of reducing asset-initiated bushfire risk. While this is an annual process, we’re working to innovate in the preparedness space. Western Power continually works to improve network resilience with about $1 billion invested annually in network upgrades and maintenance to manage safety, reliability, and environmental risks. This includes finalising current bushfire mitigation work, ongoing maintenance programs and investing in network infrastructure upgrades such as insulator replacements, managing trees and vegetation, and washing and applying silicone to insulators via helicopter.
The top 10 highest demand days have all occurred in the past two years 4,600 4,500 4,400 4,300 4,200 4,100 4196MW 4094MW 4233MW 4170MW 4189MW 4161MW 4482MW
4080MW 4104MW 4071MW
4,000 3,900 3,800 01/02/24 15/02/24 18/02/24 19/02/24 20/02/24 11/12/24 20/01/25 29/01/25 30/01/25 06/02/25
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Western Power Annual Report 2025
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