Power outage Darwin northern suburbs #1

02 Oct 2008

Customers in the northern suburbs of Darwin experienced a power outage during the night when a critical part of the Casuarina Zone Substation failed. Since a major explosion happened two weeks ago (which is currently under investigation), the substation has been running on 2/3rds of its capacity.

Initially approximately 7,000 customers lost power at around 9pm and to get into the substation to make repairs throughout the night, a further 7,000 customers had their power turned off to de-energise the substation.

Early this morning pre-testing of the system took place and by 7.35am most customers had their power restored, with other small pockets still having their service restored.

Power Networks General Manager, Bertram Birk said that the equipment at the substation was to industry standard and in use across the country. It is regularly maintained and the investigation should discover why it would fail at this time.

All emergency generators were working overnight to maintain water and sewerage pumping stations.

Important information regarding food storage/use after a prolonged power outage.

Contact: Media Manager

Phone: 0401 117 599