VICTIMS of the St Patrick’s Day bushfires are furious that the regulatory body, which oversees power companies, will not finish its review of the devastating blazes until after this summer.
They say the state government is refusing to discuss changing what’s claimed to be a “flawed” system.
Energy Safe Victoria spokesman Jonathan Granger admitted the review, which is also understood to include an audit of Powercor maintenance programs, will not be completed before March, 12 months after the fires that tore through the south-west, killing stock, razing buildings and destroying feed.
ESV has come under fire for failing to bring Powercor into line with community expectations, especially after electricity assets caused two of the St Patrick’s Day blazes.
The devastating Sisters/Garvoc and the Terang/Cobden bushfires were caused by electricity infrastructure.
That’s led to a backlash from especially The Sisters residents where independent testing revealed rotten and degraded power poles.
Powercor has been embarrassed into replacing poles and had committed to testing an additional 17,000 poles in the south-west.
Powercor has more than 650,000 poles across the state.
In 2015-16, the company saved $77 million on its own maintenance estimates leading to questions about the upkeep of the aging system that is sparking bushfires.
That’s led to ESV coming under fire with claims it’s a “toothless tiger” incapable of enforcing change proposed by the Black Saturday Royal Commission.
The Sisters dairy farmer Jill Porter, who has led the charge for Powercor maintenance reform, said the report delay simply put communities at risk for another summer.
Mrs Porter said all four south-west fires on St Patrick’s day were caused due to electrical assets, even the Gazette and Camperdown fires where vegetation fell on powerlines.
"Yes, the vegetation was outside clearance zone, but those fires could still have been avoided if recommendation 27 of the Black Saturday Royal Commission was acted on, which recommended imposing stricter conditions on electricity providers," she said.
"The Grimes Report, which was finally tabled in August last year, raises serious reservations about ESV, it's lack of technical capacity, corporate structure/regulation and potential lack of independence as people from industry move in/out of ESV jobs."
Mrs Porter said the state government also had a direct involvement in the ongoing lack of regulatory oversight by ESV of electricity providers like Powercor.
"The Royal commission identified ESV as a weak regulator in 2010 and again in 2017/18 Grimes reports re-enforces that view," she said.
"How long does the state government need to fix what is clearly a flawed system - or are they even interested in dealing with it?
"The Black Saturday Royal Commission made clear recommendations (No. 27 and 34) which provided remedies for exactly the situations which sparked bushfires on St Patrick's Day last year."
Mrs Porter said without stringent laws and an independent safety regulator that Powercor would not be bound to do everything possible to ensure the safety of Victorian communities like The Sisters, Terang, Gazette and Camperdown.
"And the Premier Daniel Andrews and energy minister Lily D'Ambrosio still continue to ignore my calls for discussion and change,” she said.
“Since our last meeting on January 15, which Ms D'Ambrosio did not attend, there has been no follow-up from the energy ministry, ESV or the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning," she said.
"They pretend to listen but there is a complete lack of will to impose and enforce strict regulations which would save Victorian lives in future - it’s simply not good enough," she said.
