SO MANY Ausnet customers have been left without power as a result of Tuesday afternoon’s storms and some other unrelated issues, that the online Ausnet Outage Tracker crashed and was unable to keep up with reports of further power failures.
First of the state’s power stations to hit the wall was AGL Energy’s Loy Yang A shortly after 2pm, because, according to the State Government, of the physical collapse of six transmission towers due to the storm.
Energy Australia’s Yallourn followed leaving Alinta’s Loy Yang B as the state’s only coal-fired power generator in action forcing the Australian Energy Market Operator to take emergency power shedding measures incluiding cutting power to half-a-million households.
It is not known when power will return.
The Ausnet Outage Tracker is back up now and reporting widespread power losses right across Bass Coast and South Gippsland; 3335 customers without power in Wonthaggi, North Wonthaggi, Dudley, Dalyston and Inverloch; 866 without power in Almurta, Wonthaggi, Krowera, Archies Creek, Grantville, Lance Creek, Woolamai, Glen Alvie, North Wonthaggi, Dalyston, West Creek, Kongwak, Outtrim, Glen Forbes, Kernot, Wattle Bank, Ryanston and St Clair.
There are 1463 without power on Phillip Island at Cowes, Rhyll, Sunset Strip, Surf Beach, Sunderland Bay, Smiths Beach and 1994 in Korumburra South, Korumburra, Leongatha, Kardella, Arawata, Ruby and Kardella South.
But just about everywhere is out of power and no word yet from Ausnet about when service might be restored.
Latest from Ausnet
Customers in the Ausnet service area are reporting a slow return of power in some areas but Ausnet says it may take days before all customers are restored.
Here is the latest from Ausnet:
“Our crews and emergency teams are assessing the extensive damage to our network that has impacted around 261,000 customers who are currently without power.
“A combination of extreme temperatures, strong winds and thousands of lightning strikes have caused damage to poles, wires and other electrical infrastructure.
“As the weather event is still passing through the state and across our network, we anticipate that repairing the damaged network will take multiple days.
“We will have a better understanding of how long restoration efforts will take over the next 24 hours and we will communicate updates with our customers via our Facebook page, direct SMS and media outlets.
“Due to extremely high volumes of traffic, our website and Outage Tracker are experiencing slow loading times. We'll keep our Facebook page updated with the latest information. Please also update your mobile number with your retailer so we can send you updates directly over the coming days.
For advice on staying connected during a longer outage visit: https://www.ausnetservices.com.au/outages#divDuringAnOutage
-If you are a life support customer, please activate your emergency plan and call our life support priority line anytime on 1800 818 832.
-If you're in immediate danger, call 000.
-For emergency services, call the SES on 13 25 00.
-Stay away from fallen or damaged wires or assets and assume any wires are live.