As at 9am
CitiPower and Powercor crews are working to restore power to more than 171,000 homes and businesses as extreme winds continue to cause extensive damage to the electricity network.
Severe winds and gusts of more than 100kmh have brought down trees and branches onto powerlines, and damaged poles and other infrastructure.
There are more than 148,000 customers without power in the Powercor network, with the Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, Kyneton, Terang and Melbourne’s western suburbs among hardest hit areas. Currently we are responding to more than 140 faults, including reports of dozens of fallen powerlines.
In the CitiPower area, there are more than 23,000 without power.
While extra crews have been mobilised to get power back onto homes as safely and as quickly as possible, the extensive damage means estimated restoration times will be longer than usual and some customers will be without power over the weekend.
We do understand many people are working and studying from home at this time, and thank them for their understanding as we work to respond to these outages.
If people do see a fallen powerline, they should always stay well away from them and report them to us immediately on 13 24 12.
We will keep customers updated on estimated restoration times by text message and online at www.powercor.com.au