More than 25,000 properties were still without power across SA – including most of the Yorke Peninsula – by mid-morning Friday.
Earlier the number was almost 30,000.
FIVEAA’s Graeme Goodings reports power is expected to be back on by the afternoon.
According to a statement provided to Graeme by SA Power Networks:
“Transmission network operator ElectraNet has confirmed damage within one of their substations which is impacting power supply to parts of the mid north and across Yorke Peninsula. We anticipate power will be restored some time this afternoon. We have teams ready to inspect our network if necessary to get power back on to customers in Wallaroo and surrounds once we have power restored to our network.”
Earlier Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis told FIVEAA Breakfast the prospect of a mass outage during forecast extreme heat on Saturday was “unacceptable”.
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In an earlier statement, SA Power Networks advised “insulator pollution” could be a factor in the outage:
ElectraNet has confirmed that this is an issue with its high voltage transmission lines.
ElectraNet suspects that insulator pollution is a contributing factor to this outage and is working to resolve the issue.
We are in close communication with ElectraNet and we will continue to provide updates as we receive them.
Please be aware, insulator pollution is affecting all powerlines at the moment due to the ongoing dry conditions. While the initial cause of this outage is with the transmission network, once transmission is restored, our SA Power Networks distribution network may experience some flow-on issues. We will be ready to address these as quickly as possible, but we won’t know the extent of these issues until ElectraNet restores transmission.
