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Category: Electricity Energy and Utilities

Gas safety concerns addressed on priority basis: Minister

Wednesday, 27 Jan 2016 16:41:30 | Rebecca Turner

The Commerce Minister Michael Mischin said he was satisfied gas installation safety issues in hundreds of Perth apartment blocks were under control. (ABC News)

The WA Commerce Minister has moved to allay concerns about a serious safety problem with gas installations in 900 Perth apartment blocks, saying the situation is "under control".

Michael Mischin said the energy safety regulator, EnergySafety, and the operator of the Perth gas network, ATCO Gas Australia, were addressing the safety risk by making the most urgent cases a priority.

"They are going through it in a targeted way, dealing with the operator ATCO in order to address each of those issues in turn and so they will have prioritised their activities on it," he said.

"I'm satisfied the matter is under control."

Mr Mischin made his comments in response to a report by EnergySafety tabled in the WA Parliament on Monday that highlighted concerns about the safety of multi-storey gas installations in big blocks of flats.

The 900 apartment blocks in question are located across the Perth metropolitan area, particularly in older suburbs.

The report highlighted serious safety problems including instantaneous gas hot water systems with incorrect flue capacity, and/or a connection to flues containing asbestos.

"This is a concern for both the network operator [ATCO] and EnergySafety," the report said.

The report said while the risk was first identified in 2010-11, only 134 risky gas installations had been fixed.

EnergySafety director Ken Bowron said in a written response that scoping work to fix the problems began after the completion of a 2010-11 survey which identified the unsafe gas installations.

He said the most serious problems were fixed first and included asbestos in flues, water heater locations and an incorrect fluing capacity.

"The risks were ranked in order of importance, with those with the highest risk — and usually the most complex work — to be completed first in order to reduce any risk as quickly as possible," Mr Bowron said.

"The remainder will take less time to fix."

Mr Bowron said the safety risks of the remaining installations were serious but often not urgent, with some existing for several decades.

AustraliaPlus


 

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