Regulator warned of risk to underground energy infrastructure

Before You Dig Australia (BYDA), an Australian Government body that provides excavation safety advice, has urged the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) to update its Network Resilience Guidelines to recognise the risk posed by costly excavation damage to utility infrastructure.

In its submission to the AER’s consultation on the draft guidelines, BYDA emphasised that the protection of underground utility assets from third party excavation damage was a critical aspect of network resilience.

“The common goal here is reducing the risk and impact on consumers of interruptions to essential services,” BYDA CEO Mell Greenall said.

“The regulator identifies the option of ‘undergrounding’ — or burying — electricity infrastructure as a resilience measure that improves reliability and safety.”

However, Greenall said that every kilometre of network infrastructure placed underground to withstand storms and bushfires becomes exposed to a different, persistent and costly threat: damage from excavation and other ground-disturbing works.

“A network insulated from weather but struck by an excavator has not delivered the consumer or community outcome any resilience expenditure was approved to secure,” she said.

According to BYDA’s overview of available data, electricity outages make up at least 12% of the more than 15,000 reported underground utility strikes that cost the economy almost $5 billion each year.

The organisation said these statistics greatly increased when telecommunication assets — as an interdependent infrastructure class — are included, with the true collective utility strike numbers likely three times higher.

BYDA’s recommendations to the AER include addressing the definition of network resilience; the evidence base for investment; data standards and reporting; community resilience; and critical infrastructure interdependency.

“After extreme weather events, clean-up and reconstruction efforts generate surges in ground-disturbing activity, frequently undertaken at pace in areas where surface markers have been destroyed,” Greenall said.

“This includes excavation work for reinstating above-ground or overhead utilities, including electricity and telco assets.”

Greenall made the point that third-party damage during recovery directly extends outage duration and undermines the restoration outcomes the AER’s framework is designed to protect.

“Essentially, excavation risk peaks precisely when network and community resilience matter most,” she said.

BYDA’s submission to the AER can be downloaded here.

Image credit: iStock.com/Fahroni