What is Regional Connect?
As part of Western Power’s commitment to improving regional reliability, the Regional Connect program aims to support initiatives which reduce the length of unplanned outages for homes and businesses supplied by long feeder lines.
Regional communities serviced by feeder lines more than 200km long often experience frequent and prolonged outages that cause frustration and inconvenience.
Long feeder lines present many challenges for Western Power. They are susceptible to weather, bushfire and vegetation-related faults, which can cause outages. The length and remoteness of the lines can make it difficult to identify and fix faults, sometimes resulting in long restoration times.
Through Regional Connect, we’re engaging with communities in targeted areas across the network to deliver solutions that will improve power reliability.
Click through the tabs below for key project facts.
Community
We're engaging with communities in targeted areas across the network to better understanding their felt experience and priorities, so that we can deliver tailored solutions to improve their power reliability.
The feedback gathered from communities will also be integrated into our medium- and long-term planning.
Trial areas
The first four feeder lines chosen for the Regional Connect program were: Lancelin, Dongara, Northampton and Gnowangerup.
Additional Regional Connect trial locations will be announced in the coming months.
Conducting the trials in areas that face these kinds of complex challenges will help Western Power to develop innovative and robust solutions that can be rolled out to other regional locations experiencing reliability challenges.
Reliability solutions
Solutions being considered to improve power reliability on the Regional Connect feeders include:
- High voltage injection units - a mobile substation that provides back-up generation in the event of an unplanned outage
- Generators
- Community batteries
- Installation of protection devices and switches to improve fault-finding capability
- Remotely controlled devices
- New overhead lines and underground cables
- Improve maintenance programs, including the washing and siliconing of insulators
- Network automation works
- Voltage regulators.
The current Regional Connect works on the Lancelin, Dongara, Northampton and Gnowangerup feeders are due to be delivered by June 2026.
Another tranche of Regional Connect trial areas will be announced in mid-2025, with those works scheduled to be delivered by June 2027.
Some of the short-term solutions being implemented under Regional Connect, such as high voltage injection units (HVIUs) and generators, do run on diesel fuel. The HVIUs and generators are intended as interim solutions while we are in the midst of the energy transition.
Renewable solutions, such as community batteries, are also being considered as part of the Regional Connect program.
Longer-term, Western Power will be focusing more on clean energy and renewable solutions to improve power reliability in the regions.
Funding
The Regional Connect Program is funded through an $88 million allocation by the Economic Regulation Authority WA to improve power reliability on rural long feeder.
This funding is part of Western Power’s current five-year budget, also known as Access Arrangement 5 (AA5). The AA5 budget period runs until June 2027.
The Regional Connect budget is being shared fairly among the trial areas based on population and a needs assessment.
The Regional Connect budget has been fairly allocated across the trial projects for the remainder of the AA5 budget period (until June 2027).
Western Power is ensuring the projects adhere to their allocated budget to ensure the funding does not run out.
Regional customers - have your say!
Share your thoughts via the survey below, or drop markers on the interactive map. You will need to create an account or login to do so.
