A MAJOR investment to upgrade power supply in Port Fairy has been welcomed by the town’s key business group.
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Powercor has announced it will plough $3 million into an electricity infrastructure upgrade for Victoria’s south-west with Port Fairy set to reap the benefits.
About 2400 customers in Port Fairy, Koroit, Kirkstall, Hawkesdale and Yambuk will have an improved power source as a result of the funding.
Port Fairy Business Association president Ken Brookes said news of the funding was a win for the town.
“It’s fantastic. We have been a critic of Powercor due to the amount of times Port Fairy has been left without power,” Mr Brookes said.
“Over the last four years, the amount of power outages in Port Fairy have escalated and most houses and businesses in the town have been affected.
“There has been some work done which has improved things a little bit over the past 12 months but there is still plenty to do.
“The infrastructure is badly in need of an upgrade to ensure we have a reliable power source for the town.”
The upgrade works will take place over the next six weeks.
Powercor warned there would be some planned outages during the works, something Mr Brookes said residents and businesses would be prepared to go through for the sake of the long-term gains.
Regular power outages in the town over the past few years have caused angst amongst the town’s traders.
Powercor’s regional business manager Nick Rees chaired a meeting of traders in December 2013 explaining how the power source to the town works and the issues that occurred.
The upgrades would improve power line load capacity which Powercor said would ultimately incorporate an auto loop function and allow Port Fairy to retain supply during any future unplanned power outages.
The auto loop will mean customers in Port Fairy will typically experience a momentary outage of less than one minute while the system is automatically re-configured to the alternate supply.
Mr Rees said the work would help with the reliability of the town’s power supply.
“Powercor has been working with the Moyne Shire and other area stakeholders to ensure this project successfully improves the area’s electricity supply,” he said.
“Powercor recognises the area has had some recent reliability issues and this project will see us fulfil our long-term commitment to providing a safe, reliable power supply to all of its customers.”