AusNet says six high-transmission towers north of Geelong that toppled during last Tuesday’s storms had cleared recent inspections.
A 2020 assessment revealed over half the state’s towers are a decade or less away from their 70-year maximum service life, but AusNet says the towers that collapsed at Anakie were found to be in “good condition” when last inspected in July 2023.
When the towers went down it caused one of Victoria’s biggest coal-fired generators to trip, located 250km away the Loy Yang A power station was forced offline and half-a-million homes and businesses went with it.
Last November the state’s energy watchdog found 50 examples of key electricity transmission lines having missed maintenance or reassessment targets in Victoria’s west.
An Energy Safe inspection of 73 towers in the south-west raised safety concerns of an “uncertain timeframe” for works on ageing towers in the south-west region, including those in need of replacement.
An AusNet spokesperson says the towers that failed in Anakie “had no overdue maintenance.”
“AusNet is focused on ensuring the safety and resilience of AusNet’s transmission network and works transparently and constructively with the safety regulator,” they said.
