November 25, 2025 • 9 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us live in the studio, as he's done every
day this week. Mike Besselink, executive general manager of corp
Operations from Power and Water. Good morning to you, Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning Katie, and thanks for having me again.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Oh my, we are happy to have you on the show.
And I tell you what, I was a very happy
person yesterday when my power came back on. I know
that Power and Water doing an awesome job at getting
as many customers as possible back online. How many have
now been restored?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, at the moment, we've got about fourteen hundred customers
who are still off supply, so from the nineteen and
a half thousand that we had at the beginning of
the week, it's been an awesome effort by the entire
team to get there. I think also, Katie, just to
sort of reiterate our process in this, is that after
we actually after the storm subsided and we could get out,
(00:52):
as we've been telling people, we had to go out
and have a look and see what damage was done
in order to work out where we had to put
our restoration efforts. The first phase of that then is
to actually get the main supplies back on.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
So this is the sort of.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
If you remember my analogy, it's the extension lead getting
that powered up back to the appliances in the backyard.
But that was phase one. Phase two is then getting
as much of the low voltage network as we can on.
So that comes from that high voltage to the low
voltage network, and we've now transitioned to phase three, which
is there are a number of individual customers who have
(01:30):
got damage to their premises which we need to start
to have a look at. We still have two jobs
that were actually doing which are what we could call
major construction jobs, so they're at Gunpoint and Lee Point Road.
But those two we should have finished today, so that
will be all of the major infrastructure stuff finished.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So, Mike, to anybody out there listening this morning who
maybe still doesn't have their power on, we're talking houses
that were like mine where they had a line, you know,
that runs from the actual power water infrastructure, so the
power water lines to their house, and that line came
down or was damaged. What steps do they need to
(02:12):
take to make sure that when power and water comes around,
that power can go straight back on. Because I know
that that's sort of really important.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, So I think so while we've got the power
running down the street. It's coming from those lines to
your house. There's a couple of things that can have
gone wrong there. One is is that that line could
have been damaged with a tree falling over, but it
also could have some damage within the property itself if
there was some electrical problem when the line happened. From
(02:43):
where we are, we will be able to replace the
line from the pole to your house. Now as long
as the connection at the house is safe. Now, if
that is damaged in any way, and we do want
people to go out and have a little and see
if there's any damage to that connection, which we call
the mains connection box or MCB they call it. It's
(03:06):
where the line comes over and hooks on and the
wires go in for your house. If that is damaged
in any way, we cannot connect the power because it
will be unsafe. You will be required to get an electrician,
a Northern Territory licensed electrician, to repair that damage first,
and they will supply the householder with a certificate of compliance. Now,
(03:29):
there are two ways that happens. One is they register
it with NT work Safe and electronically comes through to us.
There is potentially that some people will issue that as
a piece of paper and if you've got that, you
put it in your meter box so you know where
it is. So when our people come around, they've actually
got that certificate of compliance.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And I did all that. We made sure that we'd
done all that on Sunday because I knew that that
was going to need to happen post the last cyclone
we had Marcus, when somebody up the road sort of
didn't and it meant that for some reason, powers stayed
off for quite a long period of time. So to
anybody out there listening this morning, I know, if your
powers back on, you may not care too much, but
I tell you what, if your power is still off,
(04:09):
you want to make sure that when those crews come around,
you've done everything that you need to so that you
can get the power back on.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
There would be nothing worse, I understand. And if a
crew turns up and they tell you that they cannot
connect because it's not safe to do so, that would
just be a horrible feeling for everybody, including our crews,
because they don't want to be anything and then have
to say sorry, I'm not going to put you back
onto power.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So really it is very, very.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Important that those steps are done and we have those
things that we can connect.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
When we get help.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And if anybody's listening this morning and they're you know,
they need a bit more advice, they can call through
to Power and water. I would imagine that the number
of calls coming through is probably minimized significantly over the
last couple of days as everybody comes online.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, and it is important because as we've been restoring power,
people may have rung in early to say I haven't
power on, and that would have been because the whole area,
the whole street, the whole suburb didn't have power on.
As that's restored, we still need to know if there
are individuals who don't have power. So don't be shy
to ring in again to say I haven't got my
(05:15):
power on, because that's you know, we don't want it
to have been lost in the bulk of the earlier one.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, So, Mike, fourteen hundred people without power, Still, how
soon do you reckon they're going to be back online?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
So look, it's going to depend a little bit on
you know, how things are going with other people. Where
As people probably know we've been working shift crews twenty
four hours to do these things. You know, there's some
jobs that are quick where it might be that we
just need to put some fuses back in or do
(05:50):
some things like that. Some are a little bit more complex,
so it's going to depend a little bit on the
time of the jobs. So look, we're pushing as hard
as we can to get these on as quickly as
we possibly can.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And you've got your crews here from Catherine Well, I
met a few of them yesterday. Shout out to the
Ktown crew, but you've also got some from Tenant Creek
as I understand it, and also Alice Springs.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
US Springs, Yeah, and unfortunately Alice Springs yesterday I had
a few little yeah storms through it of their own,
but they got through all of those things themselves. So
we were thinking for a little time that we both
have to go and rescue.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Them as well, but luckily not. Luckily not.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Hey, Mike, tell me, I know, one of the big
questions we're getting at the moment. I don't know whether
it's something that you can answer or whether we need
to go to the government. But in the information that
came out yesterday about people potentially receiving that two hundred
and fifty dollars if their power has been out for
more than seventy two hours. As I understand, they've been
told that if they go out to Marara, out to
(06:48):
the center out there, they have to sort of be
able to say, yes, my power's been out for seventy
two hours, and then they've got to provide that confirmation
of the outage and then power and water will vary.
How does that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Well, so we've actually gone through looking at the lists
of people and when power has come back on again.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
So we've had a look through those.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
You know, it's a little bit difficult to say when
the actual power went off because it could be in
a whole range, but we know when it's come back on,
so we can sort of see from when things sort
of started happening to when it's come back on. Does
that equal seventy two hours or not or greater. So
we've got people out there at the moment who have
got these lists, and look, if anybody's in a position
(07:34):
where they say, look, I don't agree with you, just
let us know and then we can have another look
through all those sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So I've go front up out there to the Marari
Indoors Stadium at the moment, power and waters, they're going
to be able to get that info straight away.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yes, so we've got people out there. They've got lists
of people or lists of outages and sort of the
seventy two hour times that we've estimated out there. So yeah,
so there's people there and we've got there in every
half an hour to say.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Whether we need more people or not or whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So if if it does get very busy out there,
we'll get some more people out there to help.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Do you know if that payment is per person or
per household?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Look, I'm not going it's right, we can one. Yeah, yeah,
that's right. We can find out.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
We'll ask the government that what I just thought you
may have you may have known off the top of
your head. That is a okay, Mike, tell me how
the staff tracking at the moment, because I would imagine
it's been a bloody busy few days and some of
them may not have power either.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah, and look, we still have some people who don't
have power. They're busily waiting for their time to get
happening as well. But look all around the office, their
smiley faces. I think the people are just really pleased
whenever they can get another person back on supply. They
know what it's like. This is what they live and breath, Katie.
They are there to get the power out to people
(08:57):
and make sure that they got electricity. They love their job,
they know their job. This is the sort of stuff
that they do.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Good on them.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I know it's been a massive effort, you know, as
somebody who I know thinks she'd been working in the
call center, you know, when she doesn't work there usually
to help out, and that's something that people are doing,
you know, everybody pulling up their sleeves and trying to
help each other to try and help as many people
as possible to get that power back on. So look,
I know it's been probably a tough few days for
you as well. I really appreciate that you continue to
(09:25):
front up every day and tell us what's going on,
despite the fact that you are no doubt busy as
so we'll keep catching up with you probably till everyone's
got their power on. Mike.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's lovely to be here, and thank you again, Kadie.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Thank you, I really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Mike,
Joining us live in the studio, as he's done every
day this week. Mike Besselink, executive general manager of corp
Operations from Power and Water. Good morning to you, Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning Katie, and thanks for having me again.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Oh my, we are happy to have you on the show.
And I tell you what, I was a very happy
person yesterday when my power came back on. I know
that Power and Water doing an awesome job at getting
as many customers as possible back online. How many have
now been restored?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Well, at the moment, we've got about fourteen hundred customers
who are still off supply, so from the nineteen and
a half thousand that we had at the beginning of
the week, it's been an awesome effort by the entire
team to get there. I think also, Katie, just to
sort of reiterate our process in this, is that after
we actually after the storm subsided and we could get out,
(00:52):
as we've been telling people, we had to go out
and have a look and see what damage was done
in order to work out where we had to put
our restoration efforts. The first phase of that then is
to actually get the main supplies back on.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
So this is the sort of.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
If you remember my analogy, it's the extension lead getting
that powered up back to the appliances in the backyard.
But that was phase one. Phase two is then getting
as much of the low voltage network as we can on.
So that comes from that high voltage to the low
voltage network, and we've now transitioned to phase three, which
is there are a number of individual customers who have
(01:30):
got damage to their premises which we need to start
to have a look at. We still have two jobs
that were actually doing which are what we could call
major construction jobs, so they're at Gunpoint and Lee Point Road.
But those two we should have finished today, so that
will be all of the major infrastructure stuff finished.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So, Mike, to anybody out there listening this morning who
maybe still doesn't have their power on, we're talking houses
that were like mine where they had a line, you know,
that runs from the actual power water infrastructure, so the
power water lines to their house, and that line came
down or was damaged. What steps do they need to
(02:12):
take to make sure that when power and water comes around,
that power can go straight back on. Because I know
that that's sort of really important.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, So I think so while we've got the power
running down the street. It's coming from those lines to
your house. There's a couple of things that can have
gone wrong there. One is is that that line could
have been damaged with a tree falling over, but it
also could have some damage within the property itself if
there was some electrical problem when the line happened. From
(02:43):
where we are, we will be able to replace the
line from the pole to your house. Now as long
as the connection at the house is safe. Now, if
that is damaged in any way, and we do want
people to go out and have a little and see
if there's any damage to that connection, which we call
the mains connection box or MCB they call it. It's
(03:06):
where the line comes over and hooks on and the
wires go in for your house. If that is damaged
in any way, we cannot connect the power because it
will be unsafe. You will be required to get an electrician,
a Northern Territory licensed electrician, to repair that damage first,
and they will supply the householder with a certificate of compliance. Now,
(03:29):
there are two ways that happens. One is they register
it with NT work Safe and electronically comes through to us.
There is potentially that some people will issue that as
a piece of paper and if you've got that, you
put it in your meter box so you know where
it is. So when our people come around, they've actually
got that certificate of compliance.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And I did all that. We made sure that we'd
done all that on Sunday because I knew that that
was going to need to happen post the last cyclone
we had Marcus, when somebody up the road sort of
didn't and it meant that for some reason, powers stayed
off for quite a long period of time. So to
anybody out there listening this morning, I know, if your
powers back on, you may not care too much, but
I tell you what, if your power is still off,
(04:09):
you want to make sure that when those crews come around,
you've done everything that you need to so that you
can get the power back on.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
There would be nothing worse, I understand. And if a
crew turns up and they tell you that they cannot
connect because it's not safe to do so, that would
just be a horrible feeling for everybody, including our crews,
because they don't want to be anything and then have
to say sorry, I'm not going to put you back
onto power.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So really it is very, very.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Important that those steps are done and we have those
things that we can connect.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
When we get help.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And if anybody's listening this morning and they're you know,
they need a bit more advice, they can call through
to Power and water. I would imagine that the number
of calls coming through is probably minimized significantly over the
last couple of days as everybody comes online.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, and it is important because as we've been restoring power,
people may have rung in early to say I haven't
power on, and that would have been because the whole area,
the whole street, the whole suburb didn't have power on.
As that's restored, we still need to know if there
are individuals who don't have power. So don't be shy
to ring in again to say I haven't got my
(05:15):
power on, because that's you know, we don't want it
to have been lost in the bulk of the earlier one.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, So, Mike, fourteen hundred people without power, Still, how
soon do you reckon they're going to be back online?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
So look, it's going to depend a little bit on
you know, how things are going with other people. Where
As people probably know we've been working shift crews twenty
four hours to do these things. You know, there's some
jobs that are quick where it might be that we
just need to put some fuses back in or do
(05:50):
some things like that. Some are a little bit more complex,
so it's going to depend a little bit on the
time of the jobs. So look, we're pushing as hard
as we can to get these on as quickly as
we possibly can.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And you've got your crews here from Catherine Well, I
met a few of them yesterday. Shout out to the
Ktown crew, but you've also got some from Tenant Creek
as I understand it, and also Alice Springs.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
US Springs, Yeah, and unfortunately Alice Springs yesterday I had
a few little yeah storms through it of their own,
but they got through all of those things themselves. So
we were thinking for a little time that we both
have to go and rescue.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Them as well, but luckily not. Luckily not.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Hey, Mike, tell me, I know, one of the big
questions we're getting at the moment. I don't know whether
it's something that you can answer or whether we need
to go to the government. But in the information that
came out yesterday about people potentially receiving that two hundred
and fifty dollars if their power has been out for
more than seventy two hours. As I understand, they've been
told that if they go out to Marara, out to
(06:48):
the center out there, they have to sort of be
able to say, yes, my power's been out for seventy
two hours, and then they've got to provide that confirmation
of the outage and then power and water will vary.
How does that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Well, so we've actually gone through looking at the lists
of people and when power has come back on again.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
So we've had a look through those.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
You know, it's a little bit difficult to say when
the actual power went off because it could be in
a whole range, but we know when it's come back on,
so we can sort of see from when things sort
of started happening to when it's come back on. Does
that equal seventy two hours or not or greater. So
we've got people out there at the moment who have
got these lists, and look, if anybody's in a position
(07:34):
where they say, look, I don't agree with you, just
let us know and then we can have another look
through all those sorts of things.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So I've go front up out there to the Marari
Indoors Stadium at the moment, power and waters, they're going
to be able to get that info straight away.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yes, so we've got people out there. They've got lists
of people or lists of outages and sort of the
seventy two hour times that we've estimated out there. So yeah,
so there's people there and we've got there in every
half an hour to say.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Whether we need more people or not or whatever.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So if if it does get very busy out there,
we'll get some more people out there to help.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Do you know if that payment is per person or
per household?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Look, I'm not going it's right, we can one. Yeah, yeah,
that's right. We can find out.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
We'll ask the government that what I just thought you
may have you may have known off the top of
your head. That is a okay, Mike, tell me how
the staff tracking at the moment, because I would imagine
it's been a bloody busy few days and some of
them may not have power either.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah, and look, we still have some people who don't
have power. They're busily waiting for their time to get
happening as well. But look all around the office, their
smiley faces. I think the people are just really pleased
whenever they can get another person back on supply. They
know what it's like. This is what they live and breath, Katie.
They are there to get the power out to people
(08:57):
and make sure that they got electricity. They love their job,
they know their job. This is the sort of stuff
that they do.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Good on them.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I know it's been a massive effort, you know, as
somebody who I know thinks she'd been working in the
call center, you know, when she doesn't work there usually
to help out, and that's something that people are doing,
you know, everybody pulling up their sleeves and trying to
help each other to try and help as many people
as possible to get that power back on. So look,
I know it's been probably a tough few days for
you as well. I really appreciate that you continue to
(09:25):
front up every day and tell us what's going on,
despite the fact that you are no doubt busy as
so we'll keep catching up with you probably till everyone's
got their power on. Mike.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's lovely to be here, and thank you again, Kadie.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Thank you, I really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Mike,
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