Electricity restored after mass outages across Sydney
The electricity outage has affected 45,000 people across much of Sydney's east. Photo: Ausgrid
Power has been restored to 45,000 homes and businesses after it was abruptly cut due to a fault in an underground cable in Sydney’s east on Thursday.
With Sydney temperatures climbing above 30 degrees, supply was interrupted shortly before 11.30am in more than a dozen suburbs, including Randwick, Bondi, Double Bay, Coogee, Point Piper and Rose Bay.
“Emergency crews will need to locate and isolate the fault before they can restore power safely,” Ausgrid said.
Temperatures at Sydney Airport had already nudged 37 degrees by midday, and 34 degrees in the CBD. They were forecast to reach 40 degrees before a gusty southerly change.
The ABC reported that police had issued warnings to drivers after the outage affected 23 traffic lights in the area. There were other reports of people trapped in lifts, and of patients at the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick sitting in the dark.
Power is out to about 45,000 customers in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Emergency crews are on the way to investigate and restore power. Impacted areas include Randwick, Bondi Junction, Bondi, Kensington, Waverley, Double Bay, Woollahra. For updates go to https://t.co/MxbaFPxBlK pic.twitter.com/bX77lbsOJK
— Ausgrid (@Ausgrid) January 31, 2019
By 12.30pm, Ausgrid said it had restored power to 10,000 customers in the Double Bay area.
Shortly after that, all affected customers had their electricity back on.
“The outage was caused by a fault on an underground cable where it enters our Double Bay zone substation,” Ausgrid said.
Earlier, the Australian Energy Market Operator said it was working “around the clock” to keep NSW’s energy network secure ahead of forecast hot weather.
“Even with forecast temperatures in NSW hitting the high 30s today, as at 10.30am there is more than 1000 megawatts of energy reserves forecast to be in place to lean on if required,” AEMO tweeted on Thursday.
Thursday’s outage came a day after two coal-fired power stations – Liddell in NSW’s Hunter Valley and Eraring at Lake Macquarie – reportedly suffered broken generators.
-with AAP
