A minor furor has just erupted causing North Coast politicians to come out in support of the beleaguered timber industry yet again.
This time it’s over the decision by Essential Energy to replace timber power poles with more fire-resistant synthetic poles.
While the debate rages over the economic loss incurred by the industry versus the never-ending cost of replacing rotting, termite-ridden, and burned-out wooden poles, incurred by consumers, the common-sense solution of putting the lines underground, receives little support.
The official response to calls for power lines to be relocated underground is that it’s too costly. Energy providers argue that overhead lines are easier to repair, resulting in faster power restoration after outages. This argument appeases consumers but ignores the fact that underground cables are far less prone to the most common cause of disruptions, extreme weather events. It also ignores the fact that the frequency and intensity of those extreme events, including bushfires, are increasing and will continue to increase with climate change.
One factor supporting the underground option is the routine maintenance cost of overhead lines, a figure I couldn't find. However, Essential Energy’s 2022-23 annual report revealed some eye-opening facts. They conducted over 297,000 pole inspections, 67,830 drone flights along 32,000km of powerline, with over 830,000 inspection photos taken, and presumably analysed.
As well, vegetation was removed from almost 187,000 spans of powerline, removing more than 20,000 hazard trees, with a further 9,991 spans inspected for bushfire-related vegetation maintenance.
During that same financial year 7,638 poles were replaced along with more than 15,000 wooden cross-arms.
The cost is clearly phenomenal, but despite all of that, Essential still reported 24,657 unplanned power outages during that period, placing considerable doubt over the cost-effectiveness of that maintenance program.
More than half of the ACT’s power network is underground, much of it planned when the city was founded a hundred years ago. So clearly it can be done.
No one seriously advocates for the immediate placement of all power underground, but surely it should be considered in the planning for all new developments.
- John Edwards
Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , July 3, 2024.
