Transgrid under fire as NSW unveils support package for outback town crippled by power cuts

Cash payments of up to $400 will be made to outback households and businesses that have endured a week of electricity blackouts and brownouts.

The support was announced on Thursday, a week after severe thunderstorms wiped out critical power lines and faulty generators left 20,000 people in the Broken Hill area with minimal electricity.

Residential electricity account holders can access payments of $200 via Service NSW, while small and medium businesses can get $400.

Supplies of pantry staples, fresh produce, food hampers and mobile cold rooms will also be boosted by the state government in partnership with Foodbank NSW.

“Communities in the far-west region of NSW are experiencing significant hardship … and this package will go some way toward addressing the impacts at home and work,” local independent MP Roy Butler said.

“I wrote to the premier on Monday asking for compensation for individuals and businesses, and I thank the NSW government for such a quick response.”

Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said the “paltry” support would not go far enough for people like one local cafe owner, who estimated she had lost $35,000 in perishable items. 

Residents have been enduring repeated brownouts, particularly throughout the evening peak when electricity supplied by multiple generators are unable to meet demand.

That’s despite community efforts to reduce demand at those times.

The $4 million package is partly funded by Transgrid, the operator of the high-voltage transmission lines and key back-up generators in the area.

Transgrid has faced the wrath of the community and government after it was revealed one of the generators had been out of order prior to the storms.

The network operator will face an independent inquiry into its maintenance standards and potential breaches of its licence following the outage.

Transgrid has rejected assertions the generator had been out of order for almost a year, saying it was operating until September, when refurbishment works began.

Work is ongoing to install smaller generators on the local network.

Reconnection to the national grid is expected to occur about November 6.

“Transgrid acknowledges the impact of the outage and is working with the NSW government and Essential Energy to do everything we can to reinstate the permanent power supply as soon as practicable,” Transgrid chief executive Brett Redman said.

Premier Chris Minns is in Broken Hill on Thursday and expected to meet with peeved locals.

The premier has blamed the rolling blackouts and brownouts on the former coalition government’s $10 billion sale of the high-voltage electricity transmission network in 2021.

Source: AAP