It was recommended by the Black Saturday powerline bushfire safety taskforce, although it had never been used previously for fire protection anywhere in the world. Powerline faults caused 159 of the 173 deaths of the Black Saturday fires of February 7, 2009 and were responsible for an estimated $4.4 billion damage. The taskforce recommended installing rapid earth fault current limiters at all 108 rural substations in Victoria to reduce the risk of power lines causing another catastrophic fire. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The former Baillieu government accepted the recommendation in 2011, at an estimated price tag of about $500 million.

The Andrews government ultimately legislated their rollout to 45 substations in the highest risk areas, at a much lower estimated cost of $151 million. Though unproven outside of laboratory trials, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said at the time that they “can reduce by 10 times the start of bushfires from faulty power lines”. But the rollout of the “world first” technology has blown out in cost by 269 per cent since the Andrews government mandated it in 2015. Costs are ultimately expected to hit $540 million – $389 million more than initially calculated – due to a series of unforeseen technical problems. Figures published this month by the Australian Energy Regulator reveal the cost stands at $424.82 million, for stages one and two of a three-stage rollout.

The total cost is expected to grow to $540 million, to be borne by Victorian electricity consumers. The Australian Energy Regulator has determined that Victorian households will pay an extra $10 on their electricity bills next year, and between $7 and $12 in 2020, to cover stage two of the rollout. Meanwhile, initial estimates of how effective the technology would be at cutting the risk of a power line fire have also been downgraded from up to 90 per cent three years ago to as little as 50 per cent, in another serious blow to the project. A recent expert review found the costs have escalated so dramatically it is likely that they now slightly outweigh the benefits. “The installation of REFCLs is technically challenging and the total costs are substantially higher than previously estimated,” the review, led by Dr Paul Grimes, found in a report published last month.

“Extrapolating the current estimated costs, the deployment of REFCLs would now have marginally higher estimated costs than estimated benefits …” But the review also concluded Victoria had already progressed too far to pause the project, despite a litany of technical problems that threaten to delay or compromise it. “The best available information continues to show that the installation of REFCLs will have a material impact on bushfire risk in a state that faces some of the highest risks in the world,” the Grimes review concluded. Black Saturday, 2009 was Australia's worst bushfire disaster. Credit:Jason South The rapid earth fault current limiters operate like a safety switch for high-voltage wires, shifting the current from a fallen line into other cables within milliseconds.

They are planned to be installed at 45 substations in the state’s most bushfire-prone areas by 2023. Just one has been switched on so far, in Gisborne, with several more scheduled to be commissioned in time for summer. Shadow energy minister David Southwick said the Andrews government’s failure to manage the critical project had been exposed. “Daniel Andrews is putting the lives and safety of Victorians at risk with this unproven technology,” he said. “Worse yet, he’s handed the cost of the blowout to Victorian taxpayers’ to pick up.”

Ms D’Ambrosio continued to back their rollout as a way to reduce bushfire risk. “We know the devastating impact of bushfires in Victoria and make no apology for rolling out the technologies to help stop them,” Ms D’Ambrosio said. “Our summers and getting hotter and drier – that’s why we’ll take every measure possible to reduce bushfire risks and save lives.” Some parts of Victoria face a heightened fire risk this summer. The seasonal bushfire outlook for southern Australia was published in early September.

It noted “above normal fire potential” for eastern Victoria, due to record low rainfall that has dried out forest floors, and normal fire potential in the rest of the state. The outlook also noted that fire season severity has increased across southern Australia by about 50 per cent since 1950.