Mullaley’s phantom power outages due to strike action, says electricity distributor

Phantom power outages are sending frustrations high in Mullaley.

The Gunnedah shire village was advised by electricity distributor, Essential Energy, about several, day-long planned power outages – only one of which proceeded.

Geraldine McKay said the entire village prepared for the outages and some brought in generators at their own expense which were needed.

“Mullaley school hired generators to run the school,” Ms McKay said.

“The pub and roadhouse were advised they would not be able to trade.”

Ms McKay said her husband suffers from a medical condition where he is unable to regulate his body temperature.

She described it as a “different kind of suffering” to the ordinary person’s temperature adjustment.

The energy provider suggested the Mullaley resident take him to the nearest shopping centre for air-conditioned relief. Failing that, the local hospital was also suggested by the distributor as place for cool relief.

Kim Miners from the Mullaley Hotel and Roadhouse said significant cost has been incurred due to these phantom outages.

The business spent more than $5000 to purchase a generator and have it hard-wired in by an electrician.

The back-up power supply is only maintenance, meaning the pub is forced to advertise it will be closed during the day of the planned interruption. But when the power stays on and the pub re-opens for trade, no customers arrive because all think it’s still shut.

She recalled at least five scheduled outages in December and several more in November but only one outage which proceeded as planned.

More worrying for Ms Miners is the effect the outages would have on elderly residents in the village during some of the hottest months of the year.

“I understand things need to be fixed but does it need to be in December?” she asked.

Essential Energy has previously said that when planned power outages coincide with days of extreme weather, the work is assessed on the day to determine if it should proceed. The assessment criteria considers many factors, including customer impact, the type of work scheduled, weather forecasts including total fire ban days, and relevant health, safety and environmental procedures and policies.

An Essential Energy spokesperson told the Gunnedah Times on Friday: “Essential Energy is responsible for building and maintaining a reliable, sustainable, and safe power supply for all our customers. At times planned power outages are required for not only Essential Energy work, but also to allow accredited service providers (ASPs) to complete work on Essential Energy’s network for different projects.

“Over recent times a number of planned outages were scheduled to take place in Mullaley to enable authorised contractors to safely undertake upgrade works on the Essential Energy network to enable the connection of the new Gunnedah Solar Farm.

“Due to protected industrial action undertaken by members of the Electrical Trades Union, the planned outages for the above project were cancelled. These outages will be rescheduled for 2025.

“Essential Energy will notify affected customers directly, advising the dates and times of outages affecting them, allowing customers to make alternative arrangements – such as pumping and storing water ahead of a planned outage. “All customers are encouraged to have contingency plans in place that can support their individual energy needs during periods of planned outages for network maintenance or in the event of an unplanned power outage.”

A separate planned outage that would have affected 20 customers west of Gunnedah was also delayed – this time due to a vehicle breakdown.

“A planned outage was scheduled to take place today however will be rescheduled to early 2025 following the breakdown of a truck that was integral to completing the work,” the spokesperson said on Friday.