Trees main culprit for storm blackouts in Penrith and Windsor

Jan 14, 2008

Trees and branches falling onto power lines were the main cause of power outages around Penrith and Windsor in the wake of an intense storm on Sunday (13 January).

 

At the peak, at around 5.30pm, there were 13,000 homes and businesses in the Penrith and Windsor areas without power due to storm damage, Integral Energy’s General Manager, Network Asset Operations, Alan Flett, said.

 

“More than 30 Integral Energy crews worked late into the night to repair power lines and other equipment and by early Monday morning we’d successfully restored electricity to around 12,000 customers,” Mr Flett said.

 

“The estimated 1,000 homes and businesses without power on Monday morning were centred in the suburbs of Emu Plains, St Marys and Londonderry.

 

“By Monday afternoon, we’d managed to restore all power supplies.

 

“At one point on Sunday night, we’d logged more than 150 separate cases of fallen trees on power lines, all of which had to be attended to, and this meant a heavy workload for Integral Energy staff.

 

“We had to ask some of our field staff to interrupt their summer holidays so we could restore power in the shortest time possible.

 

“It’s a credit to the crews concerned that they were happy to come back to work at such short notice.

 

“Unusually, during the storm two of the main power lines out of our Oakdale zone substation received direct lightening strikes, which shows lightning can strike the same place twice,” Mr Flett said.