Essential Energy crews were quick to respond after storms caused unplanned power outages for about 8000 households and businesses in the North West, New England and Hunter areas on Thursday, including 666 in Curlewis and on the southern side of Gunnedah including the Wandobah Road area.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Manager community relations Northern, David Crough, said for the safety of the public and their property, the power network automatically switched power off to 295 households and businesses at 6.07pm and a further 371 premises, including all of Curlewis, at 9.31pm.
“Our priorities after the storms were to ensure the safety of the public and their property and then to restore power as quickly as possible for customers,” Mr Crough said.
The storm and associated high winds caused a power pole to be blown over approximately 10 kilometres along the Wandobah Road from Gunnedah and this also caused a number of secondary faults on the electricity network.
“Crews worked as quickly as safety allowed and power was restored to the 371 customers impacted by the unplanned outage at 9.31pm, including those in Curlewis, at 10.49pm,” he said.
“On Friday morning power was restored to a further 116 customers at 1.20am, 76 at 8.45am and three at 9.50am.”
Essential Energy hoped to have all the storm damage to the electricity network repaired and power restored to all households and businesses still impacted by an unplanned power outage in the Gunnedah area, before 4pm Friday afternoon.
“Some customers would have seen power go on and then back off again as crews worked to make repairs and restore power for all customers,” he said.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank customers for their understanding as we worked to restore power after the storm.”
Glen Innes, Guyra, Tamworth, Murrurundi and surrounding areas also had large numbers of households and businesses impacted by unplanned power outages on Thursday as a result of the storms.
