Jemena Statement on ESC (Essential Services Commission) Enforceable Undertaking

Jemena confirms that the Essential Services Commission has accepted an enforceable undertaking over a failure to notify impacted Jemena Electricity Network (JEN) customers about a planned outage that took place in April 2023.

The planned outage took place on Sunday, 16 April in Heidelberg Heights and was planned to impact 37 customers who received written notice. Due to an error relating to the identification of the network switches, the work undertaken resulted in a larger than expected section of our network being interrupted. As a result, supply was interrupted to one registered life support customer and 48 non-life support customers for 33 minutes. These customers did not receive written notice about the interruption.

In response to this incident we:

• restored power within 33 minutes
• contacted the affected life support customer’s preferred contact and conducted a welfare check
• conducted an investigation into the causes of the incident
• conducted staff refresher training in relation to switching instructions
• corrected the network model for the relevant switch in JEN’s digital systems to align with the physical representation of that switch
• Self-reported the incident to the ESC.

Under the enforceable undertaking, we will establish a Compliance Improvement Action Plan which will set out how we will identify and manage planned interruption risks, including ensuring our customers are properly notified. 

Jemena’s Executive General Manager of Networks, Shaun Reardon, apologised to impacted customers.

“Planned outages enable Jemena to safely service and maintain our electricity network across Melbourne’s north-west, however we know how crucial it is that information about these outages is communicated with our customers so they can make alternative plans, or advise us of any special needs they may have,” said Mr Reardon.

“We apologise to our customers who were impacted by this planned outage, and recognise we failed to appropriately notify them of planned maintenance works.”

Mr Reardon said Jemena had self-reported this incident in compliance with its reporting obligation and that the business was critically examining its processes to understand the underlying cause behind this incident.

“We are treating this with the utmost seriousness and are already implementing a suite of changes to improve our processes.”

For more information about the Planned Interruption Notification Process visit: https://jemena.com.au/electricity/our-services/power-outage-notifications