NATIONALS WA Member for North West Central Vince Catania has hit out at the State government for "dragging their heals" on the implementation of a project-ready renewable energy power solution for Kalbarri, which has been delayed by four years and won't be up and running until June 2021.
Mr Catania said it was a "disgrace" and he was "angry for everybody in Kalbarri that after working hard on a workable solution with the Nationals WA, advocating and securing funding for this essential infrastructure way back in 2015-16, that still nothing has changed".
"The previous Nationals in government sanctioned the feasibility study and committed up to $10 million back in 2016, with an expectation the project would be under way in 2017 and well and truly completed by now," Mr Catania said.
"With the Labor government dragging their feet, confirming the microgrid would be fully operational by mid-2019 - now 18 months later, still Kalbarri suffers at the hand of the Labor government.
"About 1500 Kalbarri residents and thousands of tourists are continually forced to endure prolonged power outages, economic losses and inconvenience, particularly during difficult times when there's bushfires or total fire bans, and they have every reason to be annoyed.
"With large numbers of West Australians travelling, infrastructure shortfalls and safety issues across the regions have become even more obvious - yet the government continues to fail to understand the extent of issues and the need to make a difference to regional areas in a timely manner."
Mr Catania has urged Kalbarri residents to "demand that after a very long and unacceptable four year wait we want the permanent fix now and to be afforded the same level of priority, respect and equality as the metro area".
"This can't go on any longer," he said.
"The Premier cannot accept that this is business as usual for the town of Kalbarri and the regions.
"They're just too removed and focused on Perth and the greater metro area where situations such as this would not be tolerated or allowed to happen.
"Make no mistake.
"The people of Kalbarri have been well and truly let down by this Labor government."
About 1300 customers experienced a power outage in Kalbarri, which started at 5:20am on January 5 and lasted less than 16 hours.
Western Power believed the outage was caused by lightning from a recent storm that passed through the area.
Western Power accessed a short window between 8-9pm where the Fire Danger Index dropped low enough for restoration to be attempted, which was successful and the town was repowered by the network.
State Energy Minister Bill Johnston was quick to hit back at the allegations and said the government "understands that this was a challenging time for Western Australians to be without power".
"It's school holidays, it's hot and many families are travelling around the State enjoying their summer break," Mr Johnston said.
"Recent bushfires, lightning strikes and extremely hot conditions are creating challenging conditions for Western Power across the network.
"Western Power's essential crews have been working to replace network assets and their emergency response teams have been diligently responding to faults across the network since December 2, 2020.
"In response to these challenges, Western Power is deploying a temporary emergency generator to an existing generator connection point in Kalbarri as a precautionary measure for the upcoming weather conditions forecast."
The generator was expected to be at full capacity by January 8 and would only be used if a fault occurred on the powerline from Geraldton.
"The generator will not prevent outages but will prevent the town from experiencing an extended outage," Mr Johnston said.
"In the event of an outage, there will be a small delay while the generator is activated by a Western Power crew member."
He said the former Liberal National government announced in November 2016 the plan to build the Kalbarri microgrid, although "they did nothing to implement this".
"It wasn't until February 2018, under the McGowan Labor government, that Western Power awarded a contract to Energy Made Clean to build the microgrid," he said.
"The microgrid would have been able to supply power to Kalbarri, if the power line between Geraldton and Kalbarri was disrupted.
"Unfortunately the microgrid project has been stalled due to one of the joint venture partners falling into receivership.
"Western Power has publicly and consistently given updates to local residents, government, media and businesses on the progress of the Kalbarri microgrid project.
"Western Power is a step closer to bringing the Kalbarri microgrid online, and has begun working with its contractors to start programming the system.
"This gives the battery the smarts it needs to react to possible issues and switch instantaneously as needed.
"Testing will happen next, followed by the 40-day trial in May and June 2021.
"It is expected the Kalbarri community will begin to see improved power reliability from June 2021."
