Preparing a rural network for its hardest days

I am chief operating officer of Wyndarra Power Networks, the state-owned corporation that distributes electricity to 418,000 homes, farms and businesses across southern New South Wales, from the Southern Tablelands and the Snowy Monaro to the far South Coast and the eastern Riverina. Our 74,000 kilometres of overhead line run through some of the most fire-prone country in Australia, and 21,000 kilometres of it is single-wire earth return serving isolated farms. I am responsible for field operations, network control, vegetation management, asset maintenance and emergency management: 1,760 employees, about 1,300 contractors at peak, A$395 million of annual operating expenditure and delivery of a A$540 million capital programme. I report to our chief executive, Lorna Tremayne, and present to the board's safety and network risk committee.

I did not start in networks. I joined a coal-fired power station in the Hunter Valley as a graduate electrical engineer in February 1993 and spent twenty-five years in thermal generation, as shift superintendent, maintenance manager and station manager. My last generation role was to close Bellcarrick Power Station, where I had started, and to find a path for its 412 employees. I moved to Wyndarra in July 2018 to run network operations, and I was in that role through the 2019–20 fire season, when fire burned across much of our area.

Those two experiences gave me the questions I still work on. How does an operator switch off power to keep a community safe without taking away the water pumps, radio towers and medical equipment that the community needs most on that day? How should the contractors who clear vegetation from our lines be paid, so that the money follows the risk rather than the kilometres? When a storm breaks four hundred poles, what should we tell people about when their power will return? And when an asset has to close, what do the people who ran it need from its owner? My answers have cost money, reliability minutes and, at times, the goodwill of people I respect.

Current focus

Before the 2026–27 fire season I am adding twelve feeders to our Catastrophic-day list. That means arranging backup supply for four more water sites and a district hospital's sterilising plant, and checking the contact details of 6,300 customers who could be affected. I am also preparing the operating sections of our proposal to Australia's energy regulator, the AER, for the regulatory period beginning in July 2029, where the hardest question is how much covered conductor and undergrounding our customers should be asked to fund.

Conversations I welcome

I have no plans to move to another executive post. I would consider one non-executive directorship, preferably on the safety or risk committee of a water utility, a mining services or contracting company, or a regional transport operator, provided it does not compete with, supply or regulate Wyndarra and our chief executive and board agree. I also accept a small number of speaking invitations and peer conversations each year on fire-season operations, storm restoration and thermal closure.