A recent six-month trial reduced timeframes from seven months to 4-6 weeks for land development applications that had their electrical design approved by a third-party independent auditor prior to submitting to Western Power.
Following this success, Western Power will continue to provide this option for land developers and will support it with a dedicated assessment team to provide an `express service’ to these applications given the reduced likelihood of non-conformance.
The third-party audit option is one of several options introduced by Western Power in collaboration with UDIA to accelerate new power connection installations in the housing supply industry.
In February 2024, the queue including residual backlogs for Design Information Packages was cleared due to the introduction of a self-service program in December last year. This enables electrical consultants to request network and design data information to develop a project design, rather than waiting to have it designed by Western Power.
The self-service program has reduced the average turn-around for new design projects from 8-10 months to two weeks (for a simple design) and 10 weeks for those that require more complex engineering analysis.
Western Power has been working collaboratively with industry and UDIA to embed measures to accelerate housing supply in WA.