West Australian Premier Roger Cook has criticised state-owned utilities Western Power and Synergy for failing to ensure adequate back-up was in place before undertaking major works on the state's main power grid.
About 20,000 homes and businesses in the Goldfields and Wheatbelt were affected by a mass outage on Friday, about 14,000 of which were in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
It took Western Power about eight hours to restore electricity supplies.
A Western Power crew at work in the Kalgoorlie CBD. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)
Mr Cook was Kalgoorlie-Boulder on Wednesday to officially open a new $1-million nature playground and unveil upgrades to Kalgoorlie Fire Station, but most of the questions he faced related to the city's power supply.
Mr Cook revealed that the cause of Friday's outage was a new clean energy project in the Wheatbelt, which "tripped" after being introduced to the South West Interconnected System (SWIS).
It followed blackouts in January, when Kalgoorlie-Boulder's back-up power supply failed during a heatwave, prompting the Premier to announce that two aging gas turbines in the city would be replaced.
The ability for businesses to trade was limited by the outage. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)
'Frustrated and annoyed'
Mr Cook told ABC Goldfields-Esperance Breakfast presenter Ivo Da Silva he was angry about the latest outage, which he described as damaging for businesses.
"There was a new energy project in Cunderdin which was being introduced into the grid," Mr Cook said.
"When it got introduced it tripped and we had faults within the transmission lines, which meant we then had the outage.
"This is a complete own goal by Synergy and Wester Power — they stuffed up, basically.
"They should have been working together much better so that they had the back-up generators ready to go, because they would have known that this is a point of particular sensitivity to the network."
Western Power's sub-station in West Kalgoorlie. (Supplied: Western Power)
Mr Cook said one of Kalgoorlie-Boulder's two gas-fired generators was out of action due to "regular maintenance" before the outage.
"That being the case, I would have said maybe it's not time to introduce another element into the grid," he said.
"I don't think [Western Power and Synergy] managed the risk properly and I've asked the Energy Minister to bring them in, and we're going to have a bit of a shout about this one, because I'm frustrated and annoyed."
Mr Cook issued a scathing assessment of the situation during his interview with Ivo Da Silva. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)
'We are going to fix this'
Mr Cook said a state government tender process that began earlier this year with the aim of introducing 150 megawatts of new power generation in the Goldfields had closed.
He did not provide specific details, but said the next step was the procurement phase, which would be followed by construction and commissioning.
Mr Cook acknowledged the process would "take time".
"It's not good enough, and I accept that," he said.
"It's frustrating, every time I come to the Goldfields it seems I'm coming off the back of a power outage.
"But we are going to fix this."
Kalgoorlie-Boulder is on the edge of the grid known as the South West Interconnected System. (Supplied: Infrastructure Australia)
The state government's push for power generation comes as Australia's biggest gold miner, Northern Star Resources, seeks expressions of interest for a large-scale renewable energy project at Kalgoorlie's Super Pit.
Northern Star managing director Stuart Tonkin said it was part of the effort to cut emissions by 35 per cent by 2030.
"We've got a very clear, mapped-out path over the next few years to tangibly make a dent on that primary energy generation," Mr Tonkin said.
Northern Star owns 50 per cent of the Parkeston power station, which propped up the grid in January by feeding additional power into the Western Power network.
Steve Thomas says it is likely that there will be more outages before the new system is online. (ABC News: James Carmody)
'A painful two-year wait'
Opposition energy spokesperson Steve Thomas said there would not be any new power generation until 2026 at the earliest.
"Kalgoorlie residents have a painful two-year wait, with more of these outages to come until the government provides their long-term solution," he said.
"We have been through the biggest fiscal boom in our state's history, with repeated massive government surpluses, but the lessons that should have been learnt have not been acted on.
"While I am not blaming the government for an individual power outage, this is now a trend in Kalgoorlie that could have and should have been fixed."
Rare earths miner Lynas, which is commissioning an $800m refinery in Kalgoorlie-Boulder that will employ 110 workers has been among the major industry players to criticise power reliability in the region.
Lynas Rare Earths managing director Amanda Lacaze has expressed concerns about the reliability of Kalgoorlie-Boulder's power grid. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)
The processing plant was without power for nine days in January, which prompted Lynas managing director Amanda Lacaze to call for significant upgrades to government-owned infrastructure in the Goldfields.
She has said Kalgoorlie-Boulder could be a critical minerals hub if the infrastructure was built to support development.
"Communities do well when there is infrastructure which works for industry and also works for the community," she said at this month's Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
"We have a case study of that here in Kalgoorlie, where frankly a single transmission line and a 100-year-old water pipeline are really not good enough for one of the highest-earning postcodes in Australia."