‘We’ve built a city that can’t cope’: Energy minister tells Neil Mitchell we have enough power

The energy minister says Victoria has enough power, blaming “poles and wires” for yesterday’s power outages in oppressive heat.

Lily d’Ambrosio told Neil Mitchell Victorians “shouldn’t have to cop it” and will demand answers and solutions from power company chiefs today.

“We’ve built a city and state that can’t cope.”

“A lot of attention has focused on whether we have enough energy for summer,” she said.

“We do. Last night that wasn’t the problem.

“The poles and wires and substations have let us down.”

Click PLAY to hear the interview

Neil Mitchell: So we paid all this money (to fix the poles and wires and substations) and still the system doesn’t work?

“My priority is that once everyone’s power has been restored … I’ll be sitting down with the distribution businesses, with the market operator overseeing their efforts, and the Australian Energy regulator to actually get them to identify what went wrong, why, and what steps they’re going to take,” Ms d’Ambrosio.

“People deserve to have confidence in our energy system.”

We’ve built a city and state that can’t cope.
It rains heavily in Melbourne in winter — imagine that! Rain in winter! — and we suffer significant flash flooding.
Then it gets hot in summer — imagine that! Heat in summer! — and the power system can’t cope.
We just can’t cope.

– Neil Mitchell