Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - Electricity
Electricity supplier Western Power has been informed of its contravention of a rule that states customers need to be informed of forthcoming service outages.
Last month, Theiss undertook planned works in Kendenup that meant electricity supplies were going to be ceased for a number of people.
Among them was a registered life support equipment address in the vicinity, which means the resident relies on the electricity supply to keep their machines running.
She was not informed of the interruption and therefore contacted Western Power's call centre.
It got in touch with Theiss and requested that the power would be restored, which happened around an hour after initial contact was made.
An investigation by Western Power established that Theiss had failed to provide written notification to the customer, meaning six contraventions of Type 1 licence obligations have been recorded since May 2011.
Western Power acting chief executive officer Paul Italiano said: "It is absolutely unacceptable that a customer that is listed on the Life Support Register is disconnected without notification and the opportunity for them to access Western Power emergency generators in advance of the maintenance period."
He said that this incident has highlighted that the current system is not fool-proof.
Posted by Callum Fleming