Residents of a regional West Australian community are threatening legal action against Western Power as ongoing outages bring more than a decade of frustration to a boiling point.
Located about 350 kilometres north of Perth, Port Denison and Dongara are at the end of a long feeder line from Geraldton.
Infrastructure supplying power to the towns is spread out across a wide area and is exposed to the elements.
This summer, the total duration of outages in the towns exceeded 30 hours.
An emergency generator was installed in Port Denison last month to help power most of the town during an extended outage.
But the neighbouring community Springfield is located on a radial spur off the main line, meaning it doesn't interconnect with any alternate network and cannot be back-fed for any fault on the spur itself.
Outages 'beyond a joke'
More than 100 people attended a community forum with Western Power in Port Denison on Friday and many offered scathing reviews of the network.
Springfield resident of almost 20 years Karen Mitchell said she could no longer live without reliable power.
"After 19 years, I'm moving and the main reason I'm moving is because of the power," she said.
Ms Mitchell says there are "continual reasons" why the town experiences power outages.
"We understand storms, we understand natural weather and environmental conditions. But we also understand that without power, we have no water in Springfield," she said.
"If there was to be a fire out there on a 45-degree day, we don't have power, we cannot fight that fire. So lives will be lost.
"When you can't even get a drink of water, can't flush [the] toilet and you can't have a shower, it just gets a little bit beyond a joke."
Ms Mitchell and others are considering launching a class action.
"I have got a current inquiry with the [Energy and Water] Ombudsman, who has launched an investigation into my property for the past 10 years of outages," she said.
"Based on that report coming back is whether we take a class action, which is the line we're actually heading down now because we are fed up."
Cafe owner Christina Zaharopoulos said the regular outages made it very difficult to run a business.
"This is the second time in one week that my business has had to close. We're losing business from international people … it's just not right," she said.
"What I'm tempted to do is just close up and leave because I don't know what else to do.
"We all come into this sort of life with dreams and expectations, and nobody wants to know."
Long-term solution needed
Others, such as Kathy and Philip Knife have been less critical of Western Power, with the Port Denison couple saying the impact of power outages on the town has reduced.
"This morning the power went off about 3:30am and the [Western Power] generator came online and we had power back on at 4:30am in Port Denison, whereas Geraldton was still without power in the middle of the day," Mr Knife said.
Living in a complex of small villas, a personal generator is not a feasible option for the couple.
Ms Knife said a long-term solution to the outages was needed.
"We are hoping they will get a better system going that it doesn't take so long to get the repairs," she said.
"We are fortunate to have gas for a cup of tea and a hot meal, but not everyone has that."
'We want to do better': Western Power
Speaking from Port Denison last week, Western Power chief executive Sam Barbaro says locals have a right to be frustrated.
"We certainly understand people's frustration with the service they've been getting, and we don't dismiss that at all," he said.
"We're here to listen, we're here to learn … and we want to go away and do better than what we're doing at the moment."
Maintenance works in the area this month have included washing and adding silicon to about 400 insulators with the aid of a helicopter.
Three power towers will be replaced in the coming months and equipment will be installed to allow automatic fault detection.
Mr Barbaro said a similar program of works had been undertaken in the Shire of Northampton with positive results.
"What we've seen is a significant improvement in [Northampton's] performance this year over summer, so we're hopeful that we can replicate the type of works we did there," he said.
"There are some environmental factors, but also the network needs to improve in order to meet performance."
Businesses leaving town
Midwest Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Joanne Fabling says locals need more than Western Power's assurance that the outages will improve.
"Midwest businesses, and now the community, are feeling the pinch of a very aged system that's at capacity and end of life," she said.
"We have constraints all the way through the Midwest for power.
"We have businesses that are relocating and divesting to Perth because we just do not have enough power."
