Power Outages During Bushfires

Western Power puts safety first during bushfire season and are committed to reducing the risk of bushfires across their network. Being bushfire aware and prepared is a ‘shared responsibility’ across government, emergency services and our communities. We all need to work together to ensure we are fire ready across Western Australia.

In preparation for the start of bushfire season, Western Power invests significantly in vegetation management and ongoing network maintenance; including clearing trees and bushes, replacing poles and maintaining overhead lines and insulators.

Once we are in bushfire season Western Power modify the network settings to make them more sensitive when the risk of bushfire is greatest (December to April). This reduces the likelihood of starting a bushfire but results in more frequent outages that may last longer.

 When DFES declare a total fire ban and vehicle movement ban, local residents may experience longer outages due to our restoration practices being limited. In these instances power may not be restored until the evening or the next day, depending when it is deemed to be safe enough to do so.

Community members can take steps to prepare for an outage including maintaining an emergency electricity and water supply, learning how to open automatic garage doors or gates without power and keeping a torch and spare batteries handy.

To help prepare local residents for a power outage during bushfire season Western Power have developed a brochure and short checklist which can be accessed here.

An outage can occur with little or no warning. Outages and restoration times can be monitored by visiting westernpower.com.au. Faults, emergencies and power interruption information can be accessed through our emergency line on 13 13 51. For general enquiries please call 13 10 87.