AT least two medium-sized businesses have had to resort to the use of generators after Western Power was forced to delay the installation of equipment needed to upgrade their power supplies.
The owners of the buildings from which the businesses were operating had to pay Western Power up front for the power upgrades.
Western Power has blamed the delays on high demand and a worldwide shortage of the necessary equipment.
One of the most recent businesses to be affected by the transformer delay was the Hungry Jack’s at Mundaring. The company paid Western Power about $50,000 in July for a transformer needed to upgrade the power to the store it was building.
It was forced to run a generator to provide power to its newly-built store from mid-December until Western Power connected it to the grid on January 21.
In another case several members of a prominent printing franchise banded together to centralise their printing works in Osborne Park.
They settled on their new premises in 2003 and were told they would need to beef up the power supply to the building with a new transformer.
The power upgrade process started in January 2004.
It is understood the building’s owner paid up front for the new transformer.
The transformer was installed in October, meaning the printers had to rely on a generator for about 10 months to maintain its power supply.
One electrical contractor told WA Business News that delays in getting upgraded infrastructure were common. He said even getting quotes from Western Power could be a time consuming process.
“I put in a request for a quote in October on one job in Welshpool that doesn’t even need a transformer. I still haven’t received an answer back from them,” the contractor said.
Western Power general manager networks Doug Aberle agreed the utility was having trouble meeting demand.
This was due, he said, to a worldwide shortage of electrical equipment such as transformers, switchgear and cables, large demand for this equipment as electricity utilities in Australia and overseas beefed up their networks, and increased local demand for new connections.
Mr Aberle said it normally took 12 weeks from acceptance of a quote for a customer to be connected.
“The shortages, delivery delays and high demand for new connections has meant this time has been pushed out to 20 weeks,” Mr Aberle said.
He said the shortages were only a short-term problem and that Western Power was taking steps to source extra equipment from overseas and to improve its efficiency.
“Since mid last year Western Power has reduced the average time to prepare a quote from three months to six weeks,” Mr Aberle said.
