Residents in a Wheatbelt town want a more resilient electricity connection after being cut off for three days due to wild weather and flooded paddocks.
Phone reception and fuel supplies were also lost, as hundreds of Quairading residents endured with no heating, lighting, or refrigeration earlier this month.
They were then struck by another three blackouts over the following six days.
Former policeman Geoff Winmar, who suffers from kidney failure, said the recent outage made his symptoms almost unbearable.
The 63-year-old's treatment includes driving from his Quairading home to Northam three times a week for dialysis — a procedure which leaves his blood feeling cold.
"With my condition I come home and I'm cold, no heating, it's like living down the South Pole," he said.
Restaurateur Latisha White lost more than $3,000 dollars during the outage, after kilos of food stock went rotten.
Ms White opened the business just four weeks ago.
She said the town was plagued by power issues.
"We're all fed up, it's just getting beyond a joke," she said.
"It's just the norm lately, it's just like 'oh yeah, we're having a good day the powers not out'," she said.
Shire lodges formal complaint
Quairading Shire chief executive Nicole Gibbs said the outages had been devastating for the community.
"We had people that couldn't keep their medications refrigerated, we had elderly people that were alone and scared and cold in their homes," she said.
Ms Gibbs moved to the Wheatbelt from regional Victoria less than 12 months ago and was shocked by what she said was an unacceptable service.
"When this happens in Perth people jump up and down when they go without power for one or two hours," she said.
"That was what was extraordinary to me, people [in Quairading] have come to believe that this is OK."
The shire has sent a formal complaint to Energy Minister Bill Johnston and Western Power on behalf of residents.
Mr Johnston was unavailable for comment.
"Once we do end up with something as severe as somebody losing their life because they can't take their medication or can't use their dialysis machine, that is something his government is going to have to take responsibility for," Ms Gibbs said.
Calls to overhaul system
Western Power has since moved a large generator down from Perenjori to provide more energy security, and is investing $350,000 to upgrade local infrastructure.
Ms Gibbs said the response wasn't enough and called for an overhaul of the current system.
The shire is suggesting a move to a microgrid where power would be sourced from a solar generator attached to a battery, to transition away from poles and wires.
Similar systems exist in other regional towns including Perenjori.
A parliamentary committee in 2020 found the technology could provide significant benefits including more reliability and reduced bushfire risks.
Western Power asset management executive manager Gair Landsborough said a move to microgrids was a long-term focus for the energy provider.
"A big part of our future investment is in standalone power systems and alternative technologies to the traditional poles and wires," he said.
Quairading residents, including Mr Winmar, said they were used to being left behind.
"Cause we're at the ass-end of the Wheatbelt, no one cares about Quairading," he said.
