ETSA Utilities restoring power following storm damage

Monday 1 July 2009
Power has been restored to half of the customers affected by outages since a severe storm hit Adelaide and other parts of South Australia on Monday morning.

Reflecting the widespread nature of outages, a peak of 30,000 residential and business customers were left without power for various periods after the storm front cut a damaging path across metropolitan and regional South Australia. Around 15,000 of those affected customers were still without power last night.

The storms impacted across the western and southern metropolitan area and into the Mt Lofty Ranges, while regional areas affected stretched from Oak Valley in the far west to the south east and the mid north and across the Riverland.

ETSA Utilities cancelled all planned work and had all crews on the road working to restore power to customers. Additional contract crews were brought in to assist and available crews will continue to work into the night to restore power to areas still affected.

Falling trees and branches; powerlines downed in winds of up to 115kmph and by flying debris; and lightning strikes appear to have caused most of the outages.  Ends.

Tuesday 30 June 2009

ETSA Utilities has all available crews working to restore power due to a series of outages across South Australia caused by the passage across the State of a severe storm front.

“Winds gusting up to 100 kilometres an hour, lightning strikes and sheet rain have all impacted the network,” said Sue Filby, General Manager Services. “Much of the damage in Adelaide has been caused in a half hour burst of severe weather this morning. “We have a full complement of crews working in very difficult conditions to restore power.

All planned work has been cancelled and we have called in all additional crews. “We have had at least 10 feeders impacted in the metropolitan area and about 100 outages in total affecting as many as 18,000 customers across the State,” Ms Filby said. “We appreciate the patience of customers as our crews work to restore power.

Understandably, we will have to prioritise restoration work and it may be some hours before some customers have their power restored. ” Ms Filby urged customers to contact ETSA Utilities on 13 13 66 to report faults. However, if ETSA is already aware of the fault customers are urged not to wait to speak to an operator to allow us to receive emergency calls.

Information on outages is also available from the ETSA Utilities website at http://www.etsa.com.au and which is accessible for many mobile phones.