Severe weather in Western Australia has led to substantial network damage and outages across the state, with Western Power advising residents to expect delays in repairs.
A thunderstorm in Western Australia on Tuesday 16 January 2024 has caused extensive damage to Western Power’s network, and crews are working to respond to hundreds of hazards and assess and repair damage across a large area from the Wheatbelt to Perth Hills.
There is also repair work still underway to restore customers impacted by a number of bushfires, and previous storm activity from earlier in January.
Western Power Acting CEO, Jacqui Hall, said she understood the frustration and inconvenience the current power outage was causing people but assured the community that crews were working as fast as they could within safety precautions.
“The safety of the community and our crews is paramount,” Mrs Hall said.
Mrs Hall advised that the dangerous storm conditions caused multiple faults across a large area of the Western Power network, with hundreds of hazards including numerous damaged poles and wires down from the Wheatbelt to the Perth Hills area.
As of 17 January, Mrs Hall said around 22,000 homes and businesses power supply remained affected, down from 34,000 at the peak.
“The damage area is massive, with seven transmission lines out of service”, Mrs Hall said.
“We have also been working to repair damage elsewhere on the network with customers impacted by fire and lightning strikes without power from incidents over previous days.
“While we are still scoping the damage, there are more than a hundred poles and hundreds of kilometres of conductor damaged across the network.”
Mrs Hall said that Western Power crews worked through the night to respond to hundreds of hazards due to the storm, and still have 100 remaining hazards to respond to and to make safe before repairs and restoration can commence.
“All available crews, including regional, have been deployed and we have called contractors in and mobilised helicopter patrols. All planned works have been cancelled where not critical.”
Mrs Hall said she knew unknown current restoration times were frustrating, but at this stage until damage and the repairs required were determined, accurate restoration times could not be provided.
“Our response and repair work are dependent on high fire weather conditions as we cannot restore power until it is safe. We’d encourage customers impacted by the outages to consider making alternative arrangements as their duration may be extended.”
Mrs Hall advised that helicopter patrols started in the morning of 17 January to help progress line patrols and assess damage while the network operations team continues to work to safely isolate storm-damaged lines and back-feed to restore power where possible.
“We please ask customers affected to please be patient. We’re working as quickly as we can while ensuring safety for the community and crews.
“The thunderstorm, severe heatwave and high-risk fire weather conditions experienced during the past four days has been challenging but please be assured we’re working hard to restore your power.”
