Powerful questions for SES centre
The reliability of South Australia’s State Emergency Service (SES) control centre has been called into question after a leaked report on last year’s blackout.
The internal SES report into the statewide blackout in September 2016 has allegedly revealed that control the centre's back-up generators were not able to provide adequate power during the crisis.
“We had an unprecedented event. We had the entire state in blackout and our state emergency services control centre was running at half capacity,” Opposition emergency services spokesperson Stephan Knoll said.
SA Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said he only saw the report this week, but announced that the Government would consider SES resource needs in its budget processes.
“We will go through and have a look at it and will work corporately with them,” he said.
“If the SES require more resources we are happy to help them.”
Emergency Services Minister Chris Picton also said he was unfamiliar with the report, but admitted there are “obviously improvements we need to make in terms of the SES facilities” to avoid similar problems if the circumstances arise again.