Electricity distributor Powercor will start work on a $225,000 powerline upgrade in Trentham next week so it can continue delivering safe and reliable power to customers in the region.
Crews will upgrade 1.5 kilometres of powerlines as well as replace seven power poles, nine x-arms and other infrastructure used to support these overhead lines.
Works will be conducted along Kyneton-Trentham Road and Victoria Street, Trentham until early October.
To allow crews to safely complete the work, some local residents and commercial customers will be impacted by planned power outages on Wednesday, 25 September and Wednesday, 2 October from 8.30am to 3.30pm. Powercor has contacted the 420 customers who will be affected by these planned outages.
To minimise the impact on the town, Powercor will use a generator to keep power on for a further 933 customers. These customers will experience a short outage between 3pm and 3.30pm on both days to allow the generator to be disconnected.
Project Manager Mitchell Droney said the power outages allowed crews to complete work safely and quickly, keeping disruption to customers to a minimum.
“We never want to take our customers off electricity supply, but by doing this work now we can minimise the risk of extended, unplanned outages in the future,” Mr Droney said.
“While we understand any outage is inconvenient for customers, we will have crews on site working hard to complete this work in the safest and quickest way possible.”
The work is part of Powercor’s conductor replacement program, which has contributed to the business becoming Australia’s most reliable rural network. Electricity supplies are available through the Powercor network for 99.97% of the year. This means that, on average, customers are never without power for more than 2.5 hours annually – that’s less time than an AFL game.
Any customers with questions or who are unsure if they will be affected by the planned outages should contact Powercor on 13 22 06.