The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements was established on 20 February 2020 in response to the extreme bushfire season of 2019-20 which resulted in devastating loss of life, property and wildlife, and environmental destruction across the nation.
(Note: In both the 2009 and 2020 Royal Commission Reports, there is NO recommendation for 500kV overhead transmission lines to be placed underground, only low voltage powerlines)
Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements 28 October 2020
Page 229
Australia’s electricity network ‘has a large number of very long lines which are expensive to maintain and vulnerable to natural hazards’. Power outages were a widespread cause of cascading failures during the 2019-2020 bushfires. We heard that during the 2019-2020 bushfire season, more than 280,000 customers from various energy providers experienced a bushfire-related power outage at some point. These outages were largely attributed to fire damaging more than 10,000 power poles and thousands of kilometres of powerlines, including those located underground.
Page 239
Throughout the course of our inquiry, we also explored a range of additional actions that could be taken to mitigate natural disaster risks to critical infrastructure assets, including placing infrastructure (eg powerlines and telecommunications cables) underground to reduce exposure to natural disasters.
On shifting infrastructure assets underground, it was noted that this is not always possible due to the terrain, is significantly more expensive, and that, in any event, underground infrastructure may still be susceptible to damage from fires or flooding. Energy providers agreed that stand-alone power systems would increase network resilience and reduce the exposure of energy infrastructure assets, and therefore communities, to power outages, but the Australian Energy Market Commission assessed that uptake of these solutions would likely be relatively small.
2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report 2009
Page 29 – Recommendation 27
The State amend the Regulations under Victoria’s Electricity Safety Act 1998 and otherwise take such steps as may be required to give effect to the following:
- the progressive replacement of all SWER (single-wire earth return) power lines in Victoria with aerial bundled cable, underground cabling or other technology that delivers greatly reduced bushfire risk. The replacement program should be completed in the areas of highest bushfire risk within 10 years and should continue in areas of lower bushfire risk as the lines reach the end of their engineering lives
- the progressive replacement of all 22-kilovolt distribution feeders with aerial bundled cable, underground cabling or other technology that delivers greatly reduced bushfire risk as the feeders reach the end of their engineering lives. Priority should be given to distribution feeders in the areas of highest bushfire risk.
This recommendation has been accepted by the Victorian Government.
Electricity distribution businesses will be required to implement approximately $500 million in improvements to protection and controls on Victoria’s electricity network. This initiative will be funded by electricity distributors and will be recovered at a modest increase in power bills to customers.
The Victorian Government will provide up to $200 million for the replacement of powerlines in areas of highest bushfire risk over the next eight years.
(Note: In both the 2009 and 2020 Royal Commission Reports, there is NO recommendation for 500kV overhead transmission lines to be placed underground, only low voltage powerlines)