Victoria's energy regulator has slammed Powercor's wood pole inspection and replacement policy, urging the electricity company to do better as the fallout from last year's St Patrick's Day fires continues.
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Energy Safe Victoria released a 183-page detailed technical report on Monday afternoon in the wake of the fires that devastated parts of south-west Victoria.
The regulator said the wood pole management system in place during March last year would not deliver sustainable safety outcomes for the future.
But it did not specify how Powercor was to improve.
Powercor is to now develop an improvement plan incorporating all recommendations and associated initiatives, and submit it to ESV no later than 5pm on February 28 next year.
The technical report, which detailed Powercor's shortcomings, was removed from ESV's website within an hour on Monday and replaced with a sensitised, 30-page 'public report'.
An ESV spokesman said the longer report had been replaced because it contained sensitive information.
That report included a signed asset management policy from Powercor chief executive officer Tim Rourke dated March last year.
That policy committed to providing customers with a safe, reliable and affordable supply of electricity.
To achieve that commitment Mr Rourke first vowed to minimise safety risks as far as practicable.
At the same time - on March 17, 2018 - four bushfires were sparked by Powercor's electrical infrastructure in the south-west on a day of catastrophic fire risk.
Since those fires, The Sisters' dairyfarmer Jill Porter has campaigned for changes to make rural communities safer.
In a Supreme Court compensation case earlier this month a secret Powercor maintenance report was revealed which advocated an eight-fold increase in wooden pole replacements.
This year Powercor has committed to replacing 2200 poles. In 2017 the company put in 1153 new poles, which was a fraction of one per cent of Powercor's 567,000 wooden pole network.
More than 40 per cent of those poles have now reached their use-by date.
But there are 171,415 third-rate mountain grey gum and messmate wooden poles which have or are reaching their critical end-of-life stage.
These poles have been labelled by experts as "widow-makers" and there's a forest of them spread along roads and in paddocks across the south-west.
The tsunami of pole replacements needed in the next 15 years was identified after a rotten and termite-riddled mountain grey gum pole at The Sisters collapsed at 8.50pm on St Patrick's Day last year, sparking a bushfire.
Energy Safe Victoria revealed in its detailed technical report on Monday that "Powercor now forecasts an average of 7954 poles to be replaced or reinforced each year over the period 2021/22 to 2025/26".
Even if 39,770 'widow-maker' poles were replaced in the next five years that would still leave more than 130,000 in place by July 2026. The report did not specify how many poles would be reinforced and how many would be replaced.
Reinforcement maintenance was previously halted but looks set to resume using new welded bands instead of the previous bolts.
ESV laid out 12 recommendations to Powercor to improve safety.
Six months ago ESV found Powercor's infrastructure was fit for purpose and there were no immediate systemic issues. ESV now says Powercor's wooden pole strategy is inadequate and would not deliver sustainable safety outcomes for the future.
The regulator said Powercor's testing was inadequately documented and inconsistently implemented, auditing of inspection practices was inadequate, compliance in training had not been demonstrated and performance can be improved.
The Standard has a copy of the detailed report which indicates state Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio had seen the report and provided feedback.
Ms D'Ambrosio said electricity distribution networks were on notice - they must maintain and replace their poles and wires to keep Victorians safe.
"We won't accept any form of energy asset management that puts the community at risk," she said.
"Energy Safe Victoria plays a vital role in holding those who do the wrong thing to account and we expect them to keep Victorians informed and safe," she added.
Mrs Porter welcomed the report's findings but doubted ESV's ability to force Powercor to change to a level that would be acceptable to her community.
She said ESV found Powercor's "current approach did not align with good industry practice".
Mrs Porter said ESV had limited capacity to undertake a technical report.
"The main problem is that Powercor continues to be in charge because they are seen by ESV as the experts in managing their networks, which actually highlights the issue," she said.
"We are seeing hints at change in relation to pole replacement numbers, good wood readings, pole inspection cycles and the introduction of new technology.
"But, that is all being driven by Powercor. Where is ESV regulating in this space
"They have been a weak regulator, a captured regulator and that continues."
Mrs Porter said the report failed in terms of public transparency because it was just 30 pages compared with the full 183-page technical report.
"And we now know that the minister has provided feedback," she said. "Where's the independence of the independent regulator?
"Of the 384 poles that did fail in the past 10 years, Powercor only reported 200 to ESV. How can that be possible or acceptable in any way?"
Mrs Porter said the majority of poles that failed had not even been identified by Powercor as having issues.
"The inspection regime is not working," she said.
"Most of the Powercor network is in a high bushfire risk areas. The failure to identify poles has already led to fires."
Mrs Porter said the whole ESV report echoed and validated what she had been saying for almost two years.
"Powercor was invited to participate in this report but communities like mine - the victims of electrically-started bushfires - were unfortunately not," she said.
"It's our safety, our money supporting Powercor and it has been our work that has led to these systemic failings being exposed. Premier Dan Andrews should have the decency to meet with me. It is us that have forced change.
"Our trauma, our knowledge, our research that has driven change. Not a regulator, not the minister responsible or the premier - it has been the victims.
"The government has a duty to ensure our safety."
Powercor said it had already made changes to how it inspected and maintained poles and proposed further improvements. "We are confident in the safety of our network," a spokesman said.
"Over coming years, we will need to replace even more poles to maintain the safety of our network and we are putting forward a plan on how we will do this as part of a pricing proposal we will submit next year.
"Our inspection and maintenance program now exceeds Victoria's current industry practice."
