Media Release: Update on power outages in Victoria’s west

Powercor crews are continuing to restore power to homes and businesses across western Victoria following today’s extreme weather.

Severe winds can bring down trees and vegetation onto powerlines and affect power to customers.

On Total Fire Ban days and Code Red days, the safety devices on our network are placed on more sensitive settings. This means when vegetation or other objects come in contact with our lines on these days, power will be cut to reduce the risk of bushfires. Our crews then need to conduct full patrols of the affected lines before safely restoring supply.

Currently, we are responding to more than 490 separate faults in the Powercor network and crews are working to get power back on to more than 27,030 customers. At peak, there were more than 80,000 customers off supply.

The hardest hit areas are:

• Bendigo – 12,095 customers;
• Geelong – 3399 customers;
• Ballarat – 5345 customers; and
• Kyneton – 4600 customers.

Extra crews are on board responding to faults.

While the focus is on getting people restored as safely and quickly as possible, given the volume of fault jobs there will be some customers who will be off supply overnight and into tomorrow.

We will continue keeping customers updated on estimated restoration times via our website and SMS.

Thank you to all customers for their understanding and patience during these extended outages. We appreciate how difficult it is to be without electricity and want to assure people that we are doing everything possible to get power on following this extreme weather event.

We want to remind people that if they do see a fallen powerline, they should stay well clear of it and report it immediately to us on 13 24 12.