We have a lot of electricity poles, wires, and gas pipelines that we need to look after to ensure that the lights stay on and the gas keeps flowing. To make sure everything is working properly we regularly inspect our equipment. If we need to fix something, we may need to switch off the power so it is safe for our teams to work. We call this a ‘planned outage’.

This work is important as it makes the network safer and more reliable, reducing the likelihood of any unexpected outages.

We will give you at least four business days notice of a planned outage so you have enough time to prepare.

Unfortunately, there will be times where the power goes off unexpectedly. This can be caused by severe weather, such as lightning, floods, heatwaves or bushfires, or as a result of falling trees, animals contacting powerlines, equipment failure or digging near underground powerlines.

We call an unexpected loss in power an ‘unplanned outage’. As soon as we identify an unplanned outage on the network, our crews head to the impacted area, and work on fixing it as soon as possible. Our priority is getting your electricity or gas back on as soon as it is safe to do so.