Essential Energy crews were kept busy in Orange, Bathurst, Blayney and Millthorpe on Tuesday after early morning storms caused unplanned power outages for more than 800 homes and businesses.
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The manager of community relations for the Northern region David Crough said Essential Energy’s crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to restore power for customers.
“The storm caused a large number of faults, including blown fuses, faulty transformers and a broken cross-arm, across a wide area,” Mr Crough said.
Around 600 homes and businesses in Brewongle, O’Connell and surrounding rural areas east of Bathurst were affected by the largest unplanned power outage at 2.20am on Tuesday morning.
“To ensure the safety of the public and their property, the electricity network automatically switched the main powerline to the Brewongle and O’Connell areas off, after sensing a problem,” Mr Crough said.
“After ensuring it was safe to do so, power was restored to the area in 40 minutes.”
It is believed the unplanned power outage was caused by either a lightning strike or debris, such as a tree branch, impacting the electricity network during the storm.
“The largest amount of damage occurred in the Blayney and Millthorpe areas and extra crews and equipment from Bathurst, Canowindra, Molong and Orange assisted Blayney crews to complete repairs and restore power as quickly as possible for customers affected in that area,” Mr Crough said.
Essential Energy reminded the public to report fallen or damaged powerlines immediately by calling 13 20 80 and to stay at least eight metres away from the line and anything in contact with it.