Power outages can happen for several reasons, including equipment faults, network improvements and emergency maintenance, load shedding and electrical faults at your home or business.
-
A power outage is reported
We rely on community reports to detect small-scale outages. Outages can be reported online or by phone on 13 13 88.
-
Clearing hazards for safety
Life-threatening hazards such as fallen powerlines or damaged electrical equipment are dangerous to the public and must be made safe before work can begin.
-
Crews assigned
We assemble the appropriate team to resolve the specific issue.
-
Repairs completed
Repairs are completed and safety-checked before the power is turned back on.
-
Power restored
How we prioritise our work
During a storm, the electricity network can be damaged by high winds, falling trees and flooding. Extreme weather may cause multiple localised outages across the network. After a storm, we work to get everyone’s power back as quickly and safely as possible. We ensure the streets are safe, get power back to hospitals and critical services, and then work to restore as many customers as possible in the shortest amount of time.
1. We make sure the streets are safe
Our first priority is to find and make safe any life-threatening hazards such as fallen powerlines or damaged electrical equipment. When wires or poles have been damaged our emergency service officers attend the site to check for hazards, and organise the type of vehicles and equipment needed to clear debris and make repairs. We may need to coordinate our activities with other emergency services.
2. We restore power to hospitals and critical services
We then restore power to critical community buildings and services such as hospitals, pumping stations and emergency services.
3. We repair high voltage powerlines
If your entire suburb is without power, it could mean that high-voltage powerlines were damaged during the storm. Ausgrid repairs these lines first so we can reconnect power to thousands of customers at a time.
4. We fix low-voltage powerlines
Our next priority is to repair low-voltage powerlines that run along residential streets. Each line can power several hundred customers at once.
5. We check service wires
When most customers have their power back, our final priority is damaged service wires. These wires run from low-voltage powerlines to individual homes, powering a single customer. If your service wire or private electricity pole is damaged, please get in touch with a qualified electrician to repair the damage to your equipment. Ausgrid is legally unable to repair customer equipment past the connection point, including service wires and private electricity poles.
Reports of hazards and power outages are essential to us. Outages can be reported online here or by calling 13 13 88. You can check on power outages on the power outage map.
