What we are doing about insulator pollution
 

Fixing insulator pollution is our highest organisational priority.

We know the recent power outages and flickering being experienced in parts of regional South Australia have been frustrating and disruptive for households, businesses and communities.

Insulator pollution is being managed through a coordinated statewide program of monitoring, maintenance, and operational response. This approach combines targeted field work, specialist techniques, and longer-term network planning to reduce the likelihood of outages and minimise customer impacts.

A dedicated, cross-functional Taskforce is coordinating this work across the network. It brings together operational, engineering, asset, and customer teams to ensure response activities and communications are aligned and applied consistently in affected regions.

Customers in impacted areas — including the Yorke Peninsula, Eyre Peninsula, Limestone Coast and Kangaroo Island — can find the latest updates  and planned work for their region.
 

A heat-map illustrating regions impacted across South Australia, which are the focus of our response effort

Inspection and risk prioritisation

Targeted inspections are underway across affected parts of the network to identify insulators and powerline sections at greatest risk of pollution-related faults.

Inspection findings are used to prioritise assets for:

• washing
• replacement
• further monitoring

This ensures crews are focused first on the areas with the highest customer impact and greatest reliability risk.
 

Increased washing and replacement program

Manual insulator washing remains one of the most effective ways to reduce reliability impacts in the highest-risk areas.

Washing removes built-up dust, dirt and salt from insulators and helps reduce the likelihood of flashovers and outages during dry conditions.

In some cases, washing alone is not sufficient — particularly where insulators have been degraded by repeated flashovers. Where this is identified, targeted replacement is being prioritised.

This expanded washing and replacement program is underway across multiple regions and will continue to be guided by inspection results and outage patterns.
 

Helicopter washing

Helicopters are being used to wash large sections of the distribution network more efficiently, particularly in areas with dense clusters of impacted assets or where access is difficult.

Helicopter washing allows us to cover areas faster than ground crews alone, and in many cases can be undertaken as live line washing, meaning insulators can be cleaned without planned power interruptions.

This approach complements ground-based programs and helps accelerate progress across priority areas.
 

Mobile generation deployment

Mobile generation is being deployed in selected locations to strengthen supply stability and reduce the duration of sustained outages while remediation work continues.

Deployment is prioritised based on:

• the number of customers affected
• impacts on essential services and local businesses
• technical feasibility of safely connecting temporary generation

Mobile generation can help reduce the length of extended outages, but it does not eliminate brief momentary interruptions caused by flashovers.
 

Silicone coating trial

A controlled engineering trial is also underway to test the performance of silicone-coated insulators under South Australian environmental conditions.

This trial will assess whether silicone coating can help reduce flashovers and improve performance in the short to medium term, particularly where replacement cannot be immediately undertaken.

Any broader rollout would be subject to engineering validation, safety and environmental assessment, and relevant regulatory approvals.

Silicone coating is not considered a substitute for asset replacement but may help extend the functional performance of assets while replacement programs scale.
 

Operational readiness and continuous improvement

Operational readiness is being strengthened during high-risk conditions through enhanced monitoring, forecasting and flexible deployment of crews and specialist resources.

Information gathered from inspections, outages and field work is being used to refine response processes and inform longer-term asset management strategies, supporting more targeted interventions and ongoing improvements in network reliability.