Power outages are never convenient, but imagine being without electricity or cooling on a 40-degree day.
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Residents of the Southside Village long-stay caravan park in Symonston were bracing themselves for a day without power this week as power company Evoenergy - part of ActewAGL - announced it would be carrying out scheduled maintenance work.
The work to repair underground damage caused by NBN contractors in December was slated to take around eight hours to complete, from 8am-4pm.
Temperatures are forecast to reach 40 degrees on Thursday, with 41-degree days on either side.
But following complaints from residents and management - and media inquiries - Evoenergy has now postponed the scheduled repairs.
Village management had originally asked that the work be postponed, but were told that because they had been given 10 days’ notice, the date could not be changed.
A spokeswoman for Evoenergy confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that the decision to proceed had been reversed, and that the repairs would now be carried out at a later date.
"They've talked to us, and we've listened," she said, in reference to concerned residents.
As the heatwave continues, long-term resident John Deans said he had grave concerns for himself, his pet birds and his neighbours, all of whom live in caravans or cabins in the village.
“[The village] faces due west, and it can get very, very hot here,” he said.
“I've got the air-conditioner on now, and it's only just brought the temperature down about 10-12 degrees. If I tried to stay in here with 40-degree temperatures? Not a chance.”
He said some of his neighbours had concerns about their refrigerators, and the effect of the heat on air-conditioning systems which will go into overdrive in the days following the power outage.
“They've said if the place warms up, it's going to take forever, if you've got air-conditioning, to cool it down,” he said.
“Not only that, it's a health concern, it's a danger.”
A spokeswoman for Evoenergy said the company was aware of weather concerns, and would “closely monitor” the situation throughout the week.
“The ACT government has enacted its Extreme Heat Management Plan and there are important considerations in managing the ACT electricity network in these heatwave conditions,” she said.
“In these conditions, Evoenergy must balance the health and wellbeing of staff and the community with the need to conduct critical maintenance to ensure the network remains safe and reliable.
“We are reviewing all planned electricity interruptions to reduce non-essential maintenance and will closely monitor this throughout the week as the situation progresses with the aim of reducing non-essential maintenance.”
“With regards to the Southside Caravan Village, we are in direct contact with the manager about managing their energy needs during critical repairs to the network,” she said.
“We are very mindful of our life-support customers during periods of high heat, and we work closely with these customers to ensure they are prepared to enact their life-support backup plans if required.
“We understand that being without power is inconvenient, especially in these conditions, and we are putting on additional crew to get the job done as quickly and safely as possible and get the power back on.”
