Ausgrid crews working to restore power after severe storms

28 November 2018

Ausgrid emergency crews are responding to more than 120 hazards across our network following the wild weather today.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting more severe thunderstorms, large hail, heavy rain and damaging winds this afternoon which may impact Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle and the Hunter.
More than 8,000 customers were without power after the height of the storms this morning and crews are continuing to work to restore power to all customers.

With more damaging winds and rain on the way, extra crews have been brought to respond to any outages this afternoon and tonight.
Ausgrid Chief Operating Officer Trevor Armstrong said the winds of up to 90km/h are the biggest cause for concern.

“Given the huge amounts of rain we have already seen today the ground in many places is saturated. If you add strong winds to that, it can make trees unstable and one of the biggest problems we’ve seen today is trees coming down.

“At Chatswood and Castle Cove in Sydney’s Lower North Shore, we have seen large trees fall and snap power poles at the base. Our crews have been busy removing the damaged poles and putting new poles and wires in place”, he said.

A quarter of all outages on our network are caused by trees and branches contacting live wires.
“With more strong winds on the way, it’s important to be extra careful around fallen trees or storm debris as they can hide hazards like fallen powerlines.
“If you do see fallen wires always assume they are live, never approach them, stay at least eight metres away and report them to Ausgrid online at ausgrid.com.au/report or by calling 1313 88”, Mr Armstrong said.

The torrential rain has also caused problems in the Sydney CBD after two underground substations were flooded. Crews are working to pump out the substations and inspect the damage and make it safe before they can do the necessary repairs. 

People can stay up to date on any power outages in their area by using the Ausgrid outage map which can be found at:
ausgrid.com.au/poweroutages