Failures in the privately-owned distribution network caused the widespread Australia Day power outages, not a lack of energy supply, according to a new Victorian government report.
Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio released the review on Thursday, which makes 15 recommendations to prevent similar events from happening in the future.
Recommendations include distribution networks keeping the government informed of plans to fix network weaknesses, communicate with the Health Department and vulnerable customers such as those on life support equipment about extreme weather events that might cause an outage and create a single website with up-to-date information before, during and after outages.