{"id":622126,"date":"2026-04-21T20:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622126\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:53:11","slug":"victorians-transitioning-from-gas-exacerbates-growing-problem-of-undervoltage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622126\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorians transitioning from gas exacerbates growing problem of undervoltage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marie Slako moved into her Northcote home two years ago, attracted to the property for its rooftop solar and partial conversion to electricity-powered heating and appliances.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to get off fossil fuels,” Ms Slako said. “And also gas is really expensive. The winter price, it hurts.”<\/p>\n

But shortly after moving in, problems started.<\/p>\n

First, Ms Slako noticed she could only use one hotplate at a time on her induction cooktop. Then she found the microwave would not heat food at dinnertime, but would burn everything at other times.<\/p>\n

This month, she discovered her split system would not heat the house.<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/p>\n

Marie Slako was mystified as to why her electrical appliances were not working as they should. (ABC News: Harrison Tippet)<\/p>\n

“The cold weekend we just had, I could not get the split system to work at all, which is pretty annoying,” Ms Slako said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a sense of dread waiting for winter when I’m cold and the split system’s not heating reliably. I might have to look at what else I can do, like reinvigorating the old gas heating, which is going to cost a lot.<\/p>\n

“I have noticed things are getting worse. It wasn’t this bad last year.”<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/p>\n

Marie Slako is dreading winter with a house full of underperforming appliances. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

After discovering the issues stemmed from the house’s power supply, Ms Slako called network operator CitiPower and found the issue was something called undervoltage.<\/p>\n

So many homes on Ms Slako’s street had transitioned from gas to electricity that the infrastructure could not push through enough electricity to homes to run appliances reliably during peak times.<\/p>\n

Induction cooktops were not working. EV chargers were disconnecting, leaving cars without battery. Heaters were struggling to push out hot air.<\/p>\n

CitiPower manager of customer planning and power quality Tom Langstaff uses the analogy of being in a hot shower when someone in the house starts washing the dishes and turning on other taps.<\/p>\n

The hot water system cannot push through enough heated water and the shower runs cold. Similarly, if the electricity demand is too high in some areas, the voltage plummets and certain appliances stop working.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tom Langstaff says Victoria’s infrastructure is being put under strain by increased electricity demand. (ABC News: Harrison Tippet)<\/p>\n

“[The power network] was sort of designed to handle customers’ consumption for a given time when it was originally built,” Mr Langstaff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As we’re seeing customers draw more and more power through that network, it comes under pressure.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely a rapid growth in electrification that’s occurring, and then that really challenges our networks.”<\/p>\n

Undervoltage issue grows as Victorians give up gas<\/p>\n

CitiPower says undervoltage is a growing problem, exacerbated by more Victorians getting off gas.<\/p>\n

The network operator, which distributes power to more than 300,000 customers in metropolitan Melbourne, says smart meter analysis shows the average energy consumption on cold days has jumped fourfold for customers who have removed gas connections and electrified their homes.<\/p>\n

Complaints received by the operator include customers being unable to heat or cool their homes, EV chargers not working, and broken or malfunctioning appliances.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The undervoltage issue meant Marie Slako could only partially use her induction cooktop. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

To address what it sees as a growing problem, CitiPower has lodged a submission with the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) seeking a greater revenue allowance for both proactive and reactive improvements to networks at risk of undervoltage problems.<\/p>\n

Every five years, network providers such as CitiPower must lodge their spending applications with the AER for a review of the revenue they can collect from customers for network maintenance and upgrades.<\/p>\n

CitiPower said its latest submission would not increase electricity bills.<\/p>\n

“We see that electrification will grow, and with that, we expect that the issues the customers will face through that period will grow as well,” Mr Langstaff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our plan is to be proactive, to get ahead of this and make sure that we’re there for customers when they want safe and reliable power.”<\/p>\n

The AER has previously declined a similar proposal, arguing CitiPower had overstated the impacts of undervoltage.<\/p>\n

Undervoltage no reason to delay transition to electricity, experts say<\/p>\n

Victoria Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain said the issue of undervoltage came amid Victoria’s energy transition, with households encouraged to move away from gas.<\/p>\n

But he said undervoltage was not yet a major cause for concern.<\/p>\n

“This is not yet a widespread problem,” Professor Mountain said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think it’s a matter of understanding how the evolution of these demands and battery and solar and the simultaneous use of all of these will occur, and we have yet to see how that’s going to take place.”<\/p>\n

\"Powerlines<\/p>\n

CitiPower is pushing for more investment into electrical infrastructure to match demand. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The director of the Centre for Smart Power and Energy Research, Saman A Gorji, said undervoltage should not be used as an argument against electrification.<\/p>\n

“As more households add EV charging, electric heating, and other new electric loads, some older low-voltage networks can experience voltage drops when several loads are active simultaneously,” Dr Gorji said.<\/p>\n

“That does not mean electrification is the wrong direction. It means parts of the grid need to catch up.<\/p>\n

“The answer is targeted local upgrades, better data, and smarter demand management \u2014 not a retreat from electrification.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marie Slako moved into her Northcote home two years ago, attracted to the property for its rooftop solar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,301492,301490,19161,2572,8666,11053,191919,6091,301491,301489,144766],"class_list":{"0":"post-622126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-citi-power","12":"tag-citipower","13":"tag-electricity","14":"tag-energy","15":"tag-fossil-fuels","16":"tag-gas","17":"tag-heating","18":"tag-power","19":"tag-transition-from-gas","20":"tag-undervoltage","21":"tag-voltage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}