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Residents in Dark for Days after Lightning Storms

June 9, 2023 9:14 am in by
Photo of lightbulb by Pixabay

While the majority of the 10-12,000 residents who lost electricity during this week’s storms have had their electricity restored, a few hundred have been in the dark since Wednesday morning.

SA Power Network crews have had difficulty with access issues and line damage in some areas like the Coorong, Coonalpyn and surrounds, according to Head of Corporate Affairs, Paul Roberts.

“Some of the lines that supply some of these communities are are very long lines, and we’ve actually suffered multiple damages along these lines… crews are looking for a needle in a haystack, they’re looking for a lightning strike potentially on an insulator or some other equipment and some of that can be a pinhole but can still cause the actual loss of power,” Paul Roberts said.

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“We’ve also had access problems… it’s pretty muddy and boggy out in some of the paddocks that our crews have to cross to get to the patrol lines.”

Additional resources are being provided to get electricity back up and running in these areas today, Friday 9 June, with an aim to have it restored by 3pm. Customers will be kept informed throughout the morning via SAPN’s SMS system.

Head to the SAPN website for more information, call 13 12 61 during business hours for support or the 24/7 phone line on 13 13 66 to report outages or downed powerlines.

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