Power Has Been Restored After A Major Outage Across Sydney CBD

Residents across most of the Sydney CBD woke up without electricity today, but Ausgrid has confirmed that the issue is now resolved and power has been restored. 

More than a thousand customers were affected by the outage which began just before 5am on Thursday morning.

While there were concerns about blackouts during Sydney’s current extreme heatwave, it turns out that this large power outage had nothing to do with the heat — it caused by flooding at a local substation.

In addition to residents and businesses losing power, traffic lights were knocked out, and Barangaroo and Wynyard stations were also impacted.

Ausgrid confirmed that power had been restored to the vast majority of customers by late morning, as it continued to work to restore electricity to those that remained in the dark.

“Power has now been restored to the majority of customers in the CBD after a substation flooded overnight,” the distribution company announced on Facebook.

“More than 870 customers now have power back after a burst water main flooded one of our underground substations near Pitt Street.”

“However, 80 customers currently experiencing outages around Martin Place will be without power for a few more hours as we assess and repair damage to the substation.”

Sydney Water has been working with Ausgrid to resolve the issue.

Sydneysiders concerned about blackouts during current heatwave

Concerns about potential blackouts yesterday were prompted by soaring temperatures coinciding with several power generators across New South Wales being out of service for maintenance.

Premier Chris Minns urged businesses and homes to reduce their electricity usage between 3pm and 8pm on Wednesday. Fears did not eventuate, though this week has seen localised outages across Sydney, most prominently in the south and Riverina yesterday.

Several hundred customers in the city centre lost power on Tuesday, which Ausgrid did not believe to be heat-related.

Minns stated that climate change had extended warm temperatures around summer.

“Increasingly, you’ll see heatwave conditions earlier and earlier in the year and obviously we have to manage that, but at the same time, we’re seeing more solar come on and more battery technology that can fill the gap.”