Narrabri crew to help restore fire damage

Narrabri personnel continue to support the recovery of communities in the fire ravaged south coast regions.

A four man crew of powerline workers from Essential Energy’s Narrabri depot has gone to the NSW south coast to help rebuild the electricity infrastructure destroyed by the bushfires.

The team, Neil Brayshaw, Glenn Goodhew, apprentice Brenton Cochrane and Glenn Collins, left on Wednesday morning for a ten day deployment.

They will be working out of Moruya in the heart of the fire devastated region with a massive task ahead in difficult conditions.

The Narrabri team is one of hundreds of Essential Energy crews who have been working since New Year’s Day to restore power to more than 37,000 customers, replacing power poles, lines and associated infrastructure.

The scale of the destruction and damage has been huge, but Essential Energy crews have been steadily working long hours to get the power back on.

“Just over 90 per cent of customers affected by power outages have had power restored,” general manager, Customer and Network Services, Luke Jenner said.

“Despite working in firegrounds affected by smoke, contending with difficult terrain and dealing with hazardous trees, an additional 1300 customers had their power restored by Sunday.

“Around 3800 Essential Energy customers remain without power.

“Crews continue to repair networks and continue to progressively restore power to customers.

“Additional personnel are travelling to the fire affected areas to provide more on-the-ground support,” Mr Jenner said.

The huge Essential Energy operation is in response to what is an unprecedented level of destruction of the power network on the south coast.

“The extent of the damage from these fires is like nothing we have experienced before” Mr Jenner said.

“The network has sustained extensive damage with some areas being completely destroyed and needing rebuilding.”

Depot Hubs have been set up in Moruya, Bega, Albury and Tumut.

Additional specialist personnel have also been deployed to minimise the impact of hazardous trees and the threat they pose on the electricity network.

“Due to the continuing fires, some areas are yet to be fully scoped to understand the extent of the damage to the electricity network” Mr Jenner said.

“This means some customers will be facing outages for at least another week, possibly longer.”