About 15,000 households are without power in the south-western region of Western Australia after a thunderstorm tore through the area.
Western Power confirmed the number of homes without power had dropped from the 23,000 reported on Wednesday evening, but could not give a timeframe for power restoration.
More than 80 hazards were still being worked on across the state, with Western Power crews focusing on critical infrastructure in areas where hospitals and emergency services are located.
The thunderstorm that caused the damage moved through the central wheat belt, goldfields, south coastal and great southern districts on Wednesday evening, causing widespread damage, and bringing hailstones, heavy rain and damaging winds.
The wild weather damaged more than 100 poles and hundreds of kilometres of conductor.
The storm arrived very quickly, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a severe weather warning at 12.30pm on Wednesday, less than an hour before it hit the region.
Some areas recorded up to 28mm of rain in 30 minutes, with wind gusts of 94km/h recorded at Millendon at around 1pm.
A spokesperson for Western Power said a lightning strike had damaged the network overnight, and crews were on-site attempting to address the damage.
“At this stage we believe the cause of the outage to be a lightning strike has damaged the network along the 220kv line that feeds Kalgoorlie.
“We were able to restore power to around 10,000 customers in and around Kalgoorlie last night through the gas turbine generator.”
Western Power added that Synergy, Perth’s largest energy provider, was also working towards restoring power to that gas turbine generator near Kalgoorlie.
“Unfortunately, there have been some issues with that generator and we understand Synergy are on their way to try to get that back to full capacity this morning.
“Current restoration times are unknown. Until our crews are able to thoroughly assess the damage and the repairs required, we cannot provide an accurate restoration time.”
Many major services, including water utilities, NBN, Optus and Telstra were affected by the power outages.
Telstra’s regional general manager in WA, Boyd Brown, said work was being done to restore power to base stations and exchanges, with more than 90 mobile base stations and 180 network sites without access to power.
“As of this morning, we had more than 180 network sites without access to mains power. While all our major network sites have battery backup in place for short-term outages, as the mains power remains off for an extended time many of these sites have since failed.
“This major weather event has resulted in a statewide issue impacting many communities. Telstra is actively working with the state operations centre alongside state and local government representatives, other carriers, emergency services and Western Power to ensure a timely and coordinated response.
“Due to the significant number of Telstra sites and the size of the area impacted, Telstra are currently working on plans to bring additional techs and equipment in from interstate over the coming days.”
