Assessment of Network Outage Event on 4 November 2021 – Alcan Gove Pty Ltd

The Commission has published its assessment of Alcan Gove’s request to exclude a network outage in the township of Nhulunbuy on 4 November 2021 from its guaranteed service level reporting and payments.

Guaranteed service levels provide for payments to eligible customers when a licensee does not meet a defined standard of service. On 4 November 2021, a lightning strike caused a town-wide outage in Nhulunbuy which lasted for 37 minutes. Alcan Gove subsequently submitted a report to the Commission in accordance with the Electricity Industry Performance Code requesting the Commission consider whether the network outage qualified as an excluded event.

The Commission found that the network outage event which occurred on 4 November 2021 does not meet the threshold for a ‘natural event’ as it is not a statistical outlier using the method specified by the Electricity Industry Performance Code. Therefore, it cannot be considered as an excluded event for the purposes of assessing Alcan Gove’s potential obligation to make guaranteed service level payments and for reporting purposes.