Almost 3000 WA homes still without power after severe weather events

Western Power has continued its efforts to restore power to homes and businesses across the state but still has a lot of work to do, after several severe storm fronts and bushfires swept through communities.

On Sunday morning, there were about 2850 customers without power as a result of network damage caused by bushfires and severe storms in the past week. This is down from 3800 on Saturday afternoon.

There were 773 customers without power in the Perth Hills and 1369 in the Wheatbelt on Sunday, while power has been restored to all impacted customers across the Goldfields region.

Eight emergency response generators were deployed to the Goldfields, and a Western Power spokesperson said the company was working with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to establish the areas of greatest need.

On Friday, the state opposition accused the Cook government of failing Kalgoorlie by not ensuring backup gas turbines were fit for purpose in extreme weather events.

Five 50-metre transmission towers were razed, requiring a monumental effort from Western Power staff to now reconnect the area back to the grid.

The resumption of power to residents was delayed due to two Synergy-run backup gas turbines in West Kalgoorlie tripping on Thursday, immediately after they were switched on.

Premier Roger Cook conceded the turbines were not fit for purpose in such a severe outage.

He said the government needed to look at backups, particularly as the state expected more severe weather in the future due to climate change.

The focus in now on getting the main power line connected to Kalgoorlie-Boulder rebuilt and back online. Construction is due to begin on Sunday and expected to take seven to eight days.

Crews have also completed recovery works across many areas impacted by bushfires. In Gingin teams changed 14 poles and restored supply to seven customers on Friday and on Saturday, the focus is on restoring power for those in Dandarreden and Walchem.

“With a significant number of outages and some areas having been impacted by multiple incidents outage numbers have been fluctuating,” a Western Power spokesperson said.

“It has been difficult for our teams to provide complete and accurate numbers but we will continue to endeavour to keep the community informed with information we have available.

“While some restorations times are unknown, rest assured we have all available crews on the ground making significant headway into repairing and replacing the multiple damaged poles and wires.”

Stay up to date by visiting the Western Power website.