ESSENTIAL Energy crews were quick to respond after storms caused unplanned power outages for around 8000 households and businesses in the Hunter, New England and North West areas on Thursday, including 550 premises in Murrurundi.
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Manager community relations Northern, David Crough, said for the safety of the public and their property, the power network automatically switched power off to the majority of Murrurundi at 8.27pm Thursday evening after sensing a problem.
“Crews were immediately dispatched to patrol the network and identify the cause of the unplanned power outage,” Mr Crough said.
The power outage occurred due to a direct lightning strike to the electricity network which caused a transformer to become faulty.
“Crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to re-route the electricity network around the storm damage and at 11.44pm Thursday evening power had been progressively restored to 275 customers and by 12.26pm Friday morning power had been restored to all but one customer,” Mr Crough added.
“Power was restored to the last customer at 10.40am Friday morning after the transformer which was damaged by the storm had been replaced.”
Essential Energy reminds 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.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank customers for their understanding as we worked to restore power after the storm,” Mr Crough said.
Glen Innes, Gunnedah, Guyra, Tamworth and surrounding areas also had large numbers of households and businesses impacted by unplanned power outages on Thursday as a result of the storms.
