November 24, 2025 • 9 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, I'm pleased to say that joining me in the
(00:01):
studio right now from Power and Water it is Mike Beslink,
the executive general manager of CORP Operations. Good morning to you, Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning Katie, and thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah, good to see you again. Are you getting any
sleep at the moment or just out there checking power lines?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Look, I think everyone's doing their bit and hopefully getting
home to have a bit of sleep, But it does
play a bit on the mind, so it's a bit
harder to get to sleep.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well. Yeah, when you know, when you know there are
still people without their power, I'm sure that you want
to make sure it's restored as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Absolutely, Mike.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
How many territorianes or how many residents have we now
got back online?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, I'm pleased to say that as of this morning,
we were looking at about fourteen nine hundred back on line,
So that's still about five thousand customers that we still
have to restore. But after less than sort of forty
eight hours that it's been a massive effort by the teams.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Now, Mate, I'm one of those customers that's still not restored.
What is the situation with some of the people that
are still without power.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I was having a think last night, Katie, because we
use various terminologies about suburbs being put back on power
and feeders being re energized, and I know that's probably
terminology that is not familiar with people. So I was
thinking of a bit of analogy that I could use.
And if you're running an extension cord from your house
down to the backyard, and you were plugging a number
of appliances in and down the back and you go
(01:24):
up to the house and switch the switch on for
the extension lead, that's us powering up the suburb.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
When we get down to the backyard.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We find that some of those applians it might not
be working because they're not plugged in properly, or there
is something not working on them.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's sort of where we're at.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
So when we say you know your suburbs on, we've
powered up the extension lead, we're hoping that everything is connected,
but sometimes it's not. So what we want customers to
have a look at is if they have got people
next door that has got power on and they haven't,
please give us a call because and I'd also like
to say that we are also now looking at As
(02:04):
you know, and I've spoken in the past about the
smart me to roll out, we are trying to utilize
data from those smart meters to in suburbs where we
believe the powers on and start to have a look
through to see if those smart meters are actually communicating
with us, and that might give us an idea of
houses that are off as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Okay, so I mean, I know I can speak from experience.
So at our place, we've already called power and water
on a few occasions to say that the power is
still not on. We've done everything on our side of
things in terms of getting an electrician out because we
do know that a tree fell on the power line.
I think our tree's famous for just how much it
fell on. But you know, in our situation, then the
(02:42):
rest of the streets powered up on either side of
our house, but we're still not. So if there's anybody
else listening this morning that's in a similar situation, what
do they need to do?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Look all I can say at this stage, Katie, firstly,
congratulations doing everything that you needed to do to get
your side of the things fixed up. Do exactly what
you've done, call in let us know we're also, as
I said, checking from our end so that we can
try to work out who we've got and what we
can actually do with those.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
And so what's the process from your perspective now, with
those five thousand odds that are still without power, what's
the what's the process.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
So today we're concentrating on restoring power to a number
of suburbs and I've just got a bit of a
list here. So Neimolock Road, lud Miller, Lee Point Road, Berrima, Jingly,
East Arm and Alowa is our focus at the moment.
We have a number of complex jobs. And when I
say complex jobs, they're ones where we've got to remove
(03:45):
infrastructure that's been damaged like poles or cross arms or whatever.
Where we have multiple bays of wires down that have
got to be restrung. Some high voltage assets need replacing,
so they might be transformers things like that that have
been damaged. And in some areas we still have some
very large trees over lines that we need to remove.
(04:07):
But those complex jobs are in areas Lee Point Road
at the Buffalo Creek end, Jingly, Wellington Parade in Alowa,
Stuart Highway and berram Are at the JB. Hithai Side,
Nema Luck Drive in lud Miller Stuart Highway near Robbie
Robins Reserve, Kennedy Road, Humpty Do, Dundee Beach, and Gunpoint.
(04:28):
So their jobs that are a bit more complex. So
we're concentrating on those ones I said earlier, and then
we're moving on to sort of planning and getting things
ready for some of these more complex jobs.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So when do you anticipate that everybody's going to be.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Back up and running.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That question is one that we keep asking ourselves as well.
As I've been sort of saying there's going to be
a bit of a tail to this. I don't know
how long that tail is, But as we get the
bulk of the customers on, we'll be starting to concentrate
on on a lot more of those single or potentially
double ones that come from different transformers and things, and
(05:05):
we'll start to be getting a clearer picture of what's left.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So I guess if you're someone like me who's in
a situation where everybody else in your suburb appears to
be on, you may be out for another few days.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
At the moment.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It could be that you're back on this afternoon. It
might be that you might be a few more days.
I couldn't really give you a.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I guess that makes it really difficult for people to plan.
I know that that's you know, that's not not your problem.
You guys are out there trying to do things. But
it makes it tough for people.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Right, it does, And it is a difficult one because
we are trying to get the bulk of our people,
of our customers back on first. So as we start
to look through and get those large ones, until we
then get the picture of whether it's five 'ten or
one hundred people that are still without power. As an
individual basis, it's hard to actually tell that one. But
(05:56):
you know, I really do understand the frustrations of people
are having. I really thank them for their patients. I
do know that as this wears on, that patients we're
within and we are doing the best that we can
do at the moment to sort of work through these
as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So are you pretty hopeful? I guess that you'll get
another big chunk of people on this afternoon though or
throughout today.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
We are very hopeful that we'll get another very large
chunk on through the course of this day.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So at this point in time, we've got about fourteen thousand,
nine hundred online at about five thousand left. Yes, yeah,
Now if you've got crews that have come from other
locations that they arrived now to be able to help out.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, so we've got crews from Catherine Alice Springs, Tenant
Creek who have been up here. We've also got crews
from vegetation contractors who are helping us with those complex
tree removals. Just even on that it's removing trees from
power lines. Isn't as simple as just cutting them and
letting them go because as you can imagine, they're under
(06:59):
tension when they actually come down. So people are going
to be very cautious if they're just hanging over onlines
because they can they can just fling up like a
rubber band as things happen. So it is it is
a job that they have to work through, and in
some cases they have to cut the lines first before
they can cut the tree and then repair the lines.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
It can be quite complex.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
It can be quite complex.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
And what about them with some of our more senior
people living around the Northern territory, you know, just powerwater
sort of go out and make them a priority as well.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I think again it'll be if we've got people who
are in a position where they're either needing you any
medical whatever. Vulnerable people we do have. We do understand
where our life support customers are. We but if there
are people who have just certainly ring in and make
it known, and then we can at least sort of
(07:53):
see how we plan and prioritize some of those things.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
We've had a couple of questions about the you know,
like about the map and it, you know, whether it's
actually showing the places that are back online. I know
that some people are saying they're powers back online, but
they're still coming up as red. Is it sort of
real time or not.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
It's not quite real time, Katie, As you can imagine.
As we're out in the field doing these things. We
gather the data, we send it back in and people
update and that can be out by some periods.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That's one of the other questions was how come some
of the locations are pink and others are read.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Let's just say that's that's a foible of the system there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
If they're all even though they're different shades, they mean
the same thing.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
It's something to do, and it's out of my depth,
something to do with overlays on our system.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Okay, so it's nothing, you know, nothing to be concerned about.
All right, Well, Mike will let you go because I
know you've got a busy day ahead. But I guess,
to anybody out there that's still without power today, what
do you say to them?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Look, we're working with our teams as hard as we
can to get people back on power. I would say
hopefully over the course of this day, we're going to
get another very large chunk of people back on and
then we'll start to work into those that are remaining.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I thank everybody again for the patients they're having and yeah,
we are trying our best to get these things done.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well. Mike Besselink, Executive General Manager of Core Operations, thank
you as always for coming in. And I don't know,
hopefully by tomorrow or the next day, it will be
the last time you've got to come on this week
because everybody will be back on.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I look forward to that day. I'm sure you're hoping
for it. Yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Thank you,
Now, I'm pleased to say that joining me in the
(00:01):
studio right now from Power and Water it is Mike Beslink,
the executive general manager of CORP Operations. Good morning to you, Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning Katie, and thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah, good to see you again. Are you getting any
sleep at the moment or just out there checking power lines?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Look, I think everyone's doing their bit and hopefully getting
home to have a bit of sleep, But it does
play a bit on the mind, so it's a bit
harder to get to sleep.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well. Yeah, when you know, when you know there are
still people without their power, I'm sure that you want
to make sure it's restored as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Absolutely, Mike.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
How many territorianes or how many residents have we now
got back online?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, I'm pleased to say that as of this morning,
we were looking at about fourteen nine hundred back on line,
So that's still about five thousand customers that we still
have to restore. But after less than sort of forty
eight hours that it's been a massive effort by the teams.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Now, Mate, I'm one of those customers that's still not restored.
What is the situation with some of the people that
are still without power.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I was having a think last night, Katie, because we
use various terminologies about suburbs being put back on power
and feeders being re energized, and I know that's probably
terminology that is not familiar with people. So I was
thinking of a bit of analogy that I could use.
And if you're running an extension cord from your house
down to the backyard, and you were plugging a number
of appliances in and down the back and you go
(01:24):
up to the house and switch the switch on for
the extension lead, that's us powering up the suburb.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
When we get down to the backyard.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We find that some of those applians it might not
be working because they're not plugged in properly, or there
is something not working on them.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's sort of where we're at.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
So when we say you know your suburbs on, we've
powered up the extension lead, we're hoping that everything is connected,
but sometimes it's not. So what we want customers to
have a look at is if they have got people
next door that has got power on and they haven't,
please give us a call because and I'd also like
to say that we are also now looking at As
(02:04):
you know, and I've spoken in the past about the
smart me to roll out, we are trying to utilize
data from those smart meters to in suburbs where we
believe the powers on and start to have a look
through to see if those smart meters are actually communicating
with us, and that might give us an idea of
houses that are off as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Okay, so I mean, I know I can speak from experience.
So at our place, we've already called power and water
on a few occasions to say that the power is
still not on. We've done everything on our side of
things in terms of getting an electrician out because we
do know that a tree fell on the power line.
I think our tree's famous for just how much it
fell on. But you know, in our situation, then the
(02:42):
rest of the streets powered up on either side of
our house, but we're still not. So if there's anybody
else listening this morning that's in a similar situation, what
do they need to do?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Look all I can say at this stage, Katie, firstly,
congratulations doing everything that you needed to do to get
your side of the things fixed up. Do exactly what
you've done, call in let us know we're also, as
I said, checking from our end so that we can
try to work out who we've got and what we
can actually do with those.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
And so what's the process from your perspective now, with
those five thousand odds that are still without power, what's
the what's the process.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
So today we're concentrating on restoring power to a number
of suburbs and I've just got a bit of a
list here. So Neimolock Road, lud Miller, Lee Point Road, Berrima, Jingly,
East Arm and Alowa is our focus at the moment.
We have a number of complex jobs. And when I
say complex jobs, they're ones where we've got to remove
(03:45):
infrastructure that's been damaged like poles or cross arms or whatever.
Where we have multiple bays of wires down that have
got to be restrung. Some high voltage assets need replacing,
so they might be transformers things like that that have
been damaged. And in some areas we still have some
very large trees over lines that we need to remove.
(04:07):
But those complex jobs are in areas Lee Point Road
at the Buffalo Creek end, Jingly, Wellington Parade in Alowa,
Stuart Highway and berram Are at the JB. Hithai Side,
Nema Luck Drive in lud Miller Stuart Highway near Robbie
Robins Reserve, Kennedy Road, Humpty Do, Dundee Beach, and Gunpoint.
(04:28):
So their jobs that are a bit more complex. So
we're concentrating on those ones I said earlier, and then
we're moving on to sort of planning and getting things
ready for some of these more complex jobs.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So when do you anticipate that everybody's going to be.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Back up and running.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That question is one that we keep asking ourselves as well.
As I've been sort of saying there's going to be
a bit of a tail to this. I don't know
how long that tail is, But as we get the
bulk of the customers on, we'll be starting to concentrate
on on a lot more of those single or potentially
double ones that come from different transformers and things, and
(05:05):
we'll start to be getting a clearer picture of what's left.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So I guess if you're someone like me who's in
a situation where everybody else in your suburb appears to
be on, you may be out for another few days.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
At the moment.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It could be that you're back on this afternoon. It
might be that you might be a few more days.
I couldn't really give you a.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I guess that makes it really difficult for people to plan.
I know that that's you know, that's not not your problem.
You guys are out there trying to do things. But
it makes it tough for people.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Right, it does, And it is a difficult one because
we are trying to get the bulk of our people,
of our customers back on first. So as we start
to look through and get those large ones, until we
then get the picture of whether it's five 'ten or
one hundred people that are still without power. As an
individual basis, it's hard to actually tell that one. But
(05:56):
you know, I really do understand the frustrations of people
are having. I really thank them for their patients. I
do know that as this wears on, that patients we're
within and we are doing the best that we can
do at the moment to sort of work through these
as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So are you pretty hopeful? I guess that you'll get
another big chunk of people on this afternoon though or
throughout today.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
We are very hopeful that we'll get another very large
chunk on through the course of this day.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So at this point in time, we've got about fourteen thousand,
nine hundred online at about five thousand left. Yes, yeah,
Now if you've got crews that have come from other
locations that they arrived now to be able to help out.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, so we've got crews from Catherine Alice Springs, Tenant
Creek who have been up here. We've also got crews
from vegetation contractors who are helping us with those complex
tree removals. Just even on that it's removing trees from
power lines. Isn't as simple as just cutting them and
letting them go because as you can imagine, they're under
(06:59):
tension when they actually come down. So people are going
to be very cautious if they're just hanging over onlines
because they can they can just fling up like a
rubber band as things happen. So it is it is
a job that they have to work through, and in
some cases they have to cut the lines first before
they can cut the tree and then repair the lines.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
It can be quite complex.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
It can be quite complex.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
And what about them with some of our more senior
people living around the Northern territory, you know, just powerwater
sort of go out and make them a priority as well.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I think again it'll be if we've got people who
are in a position where they're either needing you any
medical whatever. Vulnerable people we do have. We do understand
where our life support customers are. We but if there
are people who have just certainly ring in and make
it known, and then we can at least sort of
(07:53):
see how we plan and prioritize some of those things.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
We've had a couple of questions about the you know,
like about the map and it, you know, whether it's
actually showing the places that are back online. I know
that some people are saying they're powers back online, but
they're still coming up as red. Is it sort of
real time or not.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
It's not quite real time, Katie, As you can imagine.
As we're out in the field doing these things. We
gather the data, we send it back in and people
update and that can be out by some periods.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That's one of the other questions was how come some
of the locations are pink and others are read.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Let's just say that's that's a foible of the system there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
If they're all even though they're different shades, they mean
the same thing.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
It's something to do, and it's out of my depth,
something to do with overlays on our system.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Okay, so it's nothing, you know, nothing to be concerned about.
All right, Well, Mike will let you go because I
know you've got a busy day ahead. But I guess,
to anybody out there that's still without power today, what
do you say to them?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Look, we're working with our teams as hard as we
can to get people back on power. I would say
hopefully over the course of this day, we're going to
get another very large chunk of people back on and
then we'll start to work into those that are remaining.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I thank everybody again for the patients they're having and yeah,
we are trying our best to get these things done.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well. Mike Besselink, Executive General Manager of Core Operations, thank
you as always for coming in. And I don't know,
hopefully by tomorrow or the next day, it will be
the last time you've got to come on this week
because everybody will be back on.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I look forward to that day. I'm sure you're hoping
for it. Yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Thank you,
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