The current strong wind conditions impacting customers in AusNet’s electricity network is already the longest sustained weather event that our network has faced in over 10 years.
Since the start of the wild weather on Sunday, we’ve had around 93,000 customer outages. Some of our customers have been impacted more than once. We recognise that this is challenging for households and businesses, and can assure the community that we are doing everything we can to restore power as quickly as possible.
The primary cause of these outages is damage to powerlines and poles caused by fallen trees, branches and debris.
We have over 400 personnel and two helicopters in the impacted areas today and are well resourced for any further faults that emerge. Our priority, in addition to focusing on long duration outages, is to restore power to faults affecting large numbers of customers.
We currently have approximately 2,000 customers without power. The most impacted areas are in Cardinia Shire, Baw Baw Shire and Yarra Ranges, with largest single fault in Drouin (523 off-supply).
While weather conditions have been less severe today, we expect conditions to deteriorate overnight and continue to impact our network through to Monday. When customers do have power, we encourage them to get prepared by charging mobile devices and batteries. Further tips can be found on our website https://www.ausnetservices.com.au/outages.
Customers should take care around any downed powerlines, and always assume they are live, even though they may be de-energised, and report to our faults and emergencies line on 13 17 99.
If a customer receives an SMS that power has been restored and they’re still without power, check all the switches are facing up on your switchboard then follow the steps in our Report a fault form: https://www.ausnetservices.com.au/outages/report-a-fault.