SP AusNet launched a new community advertising campaign aimed at raising customers’ awareness of their obligations for private overhead electric lines on their properties.
Screening on a range of regional television, press and radio outlets, the new campaign features SP AusNet employees outlining the measures the company has undertaken to prepare for the bushfire season while encouraging residents to keep private overhead electric lines clear of vegetation.
SP AusNet spokesperson, Joe Adamo said despite the large amounts of recent rainfall, it has never been more important to ensure residents keep private overhead electric lines clear of any overgrown trees and vegetation.
“It is essential for residents to keep private overhead electric lines clear of trees and vegetation that are deemed too close to powerlines and have an appropriately qualified contractor prune vegetation where necessary,” Mr Adamo said.
“Many residents don’t realise they are obliged to monitor and maintain the electricity lines that run from powerpoles to their homes as well as private overhead electric lines on properties that may, for instance, link up a shed to the home,” he said.
Aside from placing a strong emphasis on resident responsibility, the advertisements highlight the bushfire mitigation work that SP AusNet has been doing in preparation for the bushfire season.
“At SP AusNet, we continue to invest in our networks with broad and rigorous maintenance programs to ensure a safe and reliable electricity supply to our customers,” Mr Adamo said.
“This year alone, we will have inspected 100,000 powerpoles, using a combination of our state-of-the-art helicopter for aerial inspections in addition to our ground-based analysis. We have cleared and pruned more than 115,000 trees that may have posed a risk to the operation of the powerlines and invested more than $46 million to make our network safer and even more reliable,” he said.
“We are responsible for undertaking an extensive bushfire mitigation program each year and we hope these advertisements will also enable landowners to be as prepared as they can be for the summer bushfire season.”
The advertisements will screen in parts of regional Victoria until February 2011 and can also be viewed on SP AusNet’s website.
