HBF Stadium Power Update

• HBF Stadium main switchboard malfunctioned on Friday 3 November

• Generator providing power since malfunction

• Intermittent power failures being experienced

On Friday 3 November, the main switchboard at HBF Stadium critically malfunctioned. That resulted in a complete power failure across parts of the venue and unfortunately the evacuation of all staff and patrons.  A detailed investigation by our electrical contractors determined that a bespoke rebuild of the switchboard would be required.

 

In order to keep the venue running and ensure that our customers, tenants and staff could continue to use our services, we decided to move to generator power and as a result the venue was back up and running with full power on Saturday 4 November.  Due to the nature of the tailored build required for the new switchboard, it was made clear that HBF Stadium would be running off generator power for between 6 and 10 weeks and in order to mitigate any risk of the generator failure, a second generator was sourced.

 

The generators have successfully kept the venue running for almost three weeks, but unfortunately, between Wednesday and Saturday week before last, we experienced intermittent power failures resulting in two evacuations of the venue on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 November.  We are very sorry for this and the inconvenience it caused.  We are working tirelessly with our two high quality electrical contractors -  Nilsen and generator contractor Aggreko - to ensure reliable power is provided to our customers and as such we have been running successfully off two generators without issue since the afternoon of Saturday 25 November.

 

We understand that the customer experience at the venue in the last week was not acceptable but please rest assured we are doing everything we can to provide continued service. Notwithstanding, we thought it right to provide you with information about further venue closures that will be required, not only because of this issue but with other important works required in the coming months.

 

The following shutdowns are expected at this stage and we will be in touch with all affected customers, tenants and staff.

 

December 22 - 24: A separate and unrelated venue shutdown is planned from 22 December - 24 December due to Pavilion works which are being undertaken by UWA on MacGillivray Oval. The University needs to cut off gas and water to HBF Stadium for a period of time and this requires a complete venue closure on these days. We have worked very closely with UWA on the timing of these works to reduce the impact on our customers. 

 

January (dates TBC): An additional two - three day shutdown will be required in January when the new switchboard is delivered and installed.  Whilst we don’t know the exact dates of the shutdown yet, please be assured we will give the utmost consideration to minimising  the impact on our customers and we will communicate that in advance.

 

We are very sorry for the inevitable inconvenience all of these closures cause for our customers and tenants. We pride ourselves on our service delivery and we are doing everything possible to deliver HBF Stadium and its facilities to our athletes and customers in its fullest capacity.

 

We will be sending out further communications about the future venue closures as we know more, including what we can do to help alleviate this situation for you.

 

Thank you for using HBF Stadium and please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience these current situations are causing.