Power has been restored after a major outage left tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Sydney's eastern suburbs without power on Thursday.
About 45,000 customers in suburbs including Double Bay, Edgecliff and Bondi Junction lost power at 11.26am on Thursday.
Traffic lights were blacked out in many parts of the eastern suburbs, including Double Bay.Credit:Ben Grubb
At 12.20pm, power had been restored to 10,000 homes and businesses around the Double Bay area, and an Ausgrid spokeswoman said crews restored power to the remaining 35,000 customers by 12.37pm.
The spokeswoman said an investigation found the outage was caused by a fault in an underground cable entering the Double Bay substation.
The blackout was widely felt, affecting the Sydney Children's Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick.
A spokeswoman for Prince of Wales Hospital said the hospital's backup generator kicked in immediately so no essential services were affected.
Coogee Public School experienced a total blackout, with no phone, internet, bells or electricity at all, according to an email sent to parents by the principal of the school.
The blackout also affected Waverley Council's phones as well as its library and customer service centre.
At least 23 traffic lights were blacked out through Maroubra, Randwick, Clovelly, Kensington, Coogee, Bondi and Double Bay during the power outage.
Traffic signal crews were deployed with generators to manage the situation, a Transport Management Centre spokeswoman said, and motorists were advised to exercise caution.
Ausgrid said affected areas included parts of Randwick, Bondi Junction, Bondi, Kensington, Waverley, Double Bay, Woollahra, Bronte, Bellevue Hill, Clovelly, Coogee, Rose Bay, Queens Park, Edgecliff, Point Piper, Paddington, Tamarama, Bondi Beach and parts of nearby areas.
Earlier on Thursday there were power outages around Menai and Engadine in Sydney’s south, with about 1800 customers affected. Power was restored in about three hours.
The blackouts came after news two NSW power stations broke down on Wednesday, leaving a potential shortfall in back-up power for Thursday.
The Australian Energy Market Operator, which controls the power supply for the grid, reassured customers in NSW there was still plenty of energy in the system.
"AEMO continues to work around the clock to keep our energy system secure. Even with forecast temperatures in NSW hitting the high 30s today, there is more enough energy reserves forecast to be in place to lean on if required," an AEMO spokeswoman said.
Temperatures have soared in Sydney, with the Bureau of Meteorology updating its Thursday forecast to predicting it will reach tops of 40 degrees in the west and the city.
Just before midday on Thursday it was 32.9 degrees at Observatory Hill, 31.1 degrees on Sydney Harbour and 35.2 degrees at Sydney Airport.
With Laura Chung
Rachel Clun is a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.
Covering energy and policy at Fairfax Media.
Most Viewed in National
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Power restored after massive outage in eastern suburbs leaves thousands in the dark - The Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment