Essential Energy Bushfire Update - 4.00pm - Friday 17 January 2020
The extent of the damage to the Essential Energy network from bushfires fires is unprecedented, with parts of the network completely destroyed, the rebuilding process will be complicated and time consuming.
Whilst crews continue to work progressively to restore power for customers, customer numbers across the locations are becoming more dispersed, therefore smaller numbers of customers are being resorted with each pole or piece of equipment that is repaired.
2,400 customers remain without power in the Snowy Valleys, Riverina and South Coast regions.
We are still assessing damage across the South Coast and Riverina, with access to some of the more treacherous areas making it difficult for crews to undertake comprehensive inspections.
To date, we have identified almost 1,900 poles for replacement.
To provide some context, Essential Energy replaced over 1,000 poles in the Rappville and Mid-North Coast Fires that swept through the North Coast late last year.
Conditions in the South East of NSW will become even tougher in coming days, with potential rainfall adding to the dangers
Hazardous trees also continue to threaten the electricity network throughout bushfire damaged areas.
In the early hours of this morning, Essential Energy crews responded to a unplanned outage affecting 1,500 customers in Batemans Bay, Batehaven, Sunshine Bay and surrounding areas.
Crews discovered a fire damaged tree fallen on powerlines.
Repairs were made and all customers were restored power by 5:45am this morning.
Despite the hazards, it is pleasing to report that to date all of our work has been carried out without any significant injuries.
This video will give you a sense of the conditions Essential Energy teams are facing each day.
A further update on restoration efforts will be provided on Monday.
