Full Version - Essential Energy

Vegetation management
The management of vegetation near powerlines
is a substantial part of our overall maintenance
requirements to ensure a safe and reliable power
supply.
Trees coming into contact with overhead powerlines
can pose serious hazards to people, wildlife and the
surrounding environment, with potential for bushfires,
damage to property, injury and supply interruptions.
Significant changes during 2004-2005 included the
return of some work functions traditionally carried
out by contractors to internal employees and the
appointment of additional vegetation control officers.
Some of these functions include customer liaison,
work consent negotiations, evaluation and pre-listing
of vegetation interaction with network assets.
New contracts have been awarded within those regions
that outsource vegetation maintenance activities to
reflect the changed management approach.
New technology
Technology to streamline the pre-listing process
has seen the development and implementation of a
software application similar to that used by our asset
inspectors. The application runs on pocket PC devices,
with electronic upload and download functionality.
Public education
Raising awareness of the dangers associated with
planting inappropriate species near powerlines
continued to be a major focus, with the promotion of
planting guides and give-away of appropriate species at
community events. We also have measures in place to
encourage customers to seek advice before planting.
Ongoing consultation with councils and community
groups has assisted in the implementation of effective
local vegetation management strategies and achieving
long-term solutions that minimise environmental impact
and the amenity value of community trees.
Virtual control room
Country Energy is the only Australian electricity network
business to adopt a totally digital mode of system
control across multiple centres. Our three-year Virtual
Operations Service Centre (VOSC) project is delivering
improved customer service and flexibility of operations,
by linking centres at Queanbeyan, Bathurst, Dubbo and
Port Macquarie.
It is also helping to –
• Match resources to workloads
• Initiate an instant ‘ramp-up’ in emergency situations
• Provide better information for customers – real time
information updates
• Create a more reliable system – high availability and
scalable architecture
• Improve emergency response capabilities
• Provide for greater employee stability – no need for
employees to travel to other centres when relieving
• Create economies of scale without centralisation
• Improve regulatory compliance – accurate, auditable
reliability reporting
• Ensure cost effective and seamless disaster and
incident recovery.
In December 2004, we opened a $2.5 million
Operations Service Centre in Queanbeyan. The centre
features state-of-the-art equipment to monitor and
control any part of the network from any location and
will improve our ability to coordinate field crews and
communicate with customers.
A new internet protocol phone and radio dispatch
system was installed in 2004-2005, improving system
control productivity by 40 per cent. With the previous
system, phone messages were manually relayed by
radio to the field workers by an operator, who required
two control consoles.
2004-2005 target – improved customer service
Outcome – consolidation of network operations into
Queanbeyan Operations Service Centre increased from
50 per cent to 70 per cent complete, refurbishment
of Port Macquarie Operations Service Centre, and the
retirement of legacy systems that remotely controlled
the network.
Future goals – finalise deployment of a new
computerised system that provides for control room
automation.
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COUNTRY ENERGY ANNUAL REPORT 2004–2005