Thousands of homes still without power in Perth’s north, as Roger Cook calls outages a post-summer ‘reality’

Tens of thousands of homes in Perth’s northern suburbs spent their public holiday day off without power, with Premier Roger Cook describing the outages as a “reality” of a functioning electricity network. Western Power spent Monday restoring power across the suburbs, after light drizzle caused about 70 power poles to catch fire. The fires plunged more than 35,000 homes from Yanchep down to Innaloo into sporadic darkness for most of the day, as well as traffic signals. Mr Cook described the outages as the reality of the power network shifting between seasons. “It’s the reality of any sort of power network that you’ll have from time to time to lead pole-top fires related to these weather events,” he said “Western Australia is no orphan in this. These are a reality of a functioning transmission system. “(Western Power does) a bunch of remediation work in the lead up to these sorts of changes of seasons, but nowadays our grid is so large that would be difficult to make sure that you cover every set of eventuality. “What’s pleasing is that they are working tirelessly and quickly to reconnect those homes and this is part and parcel of a large interconnected system.” A Western Power spokesperson said crews worked as quickly as possible to restore power but some customers would be left without electricity for the entire day. “Customers may see crews attending a fault and then leaving before power has been restored,” they said. “This is because our crews’ priority is to make hazards safe first before commencing repairs. “Once all hazards have been made safe, crews will be able to assess poles for replacement and start repair work. “Each pole change can take between four to eight hours, depending on the type of pole, and unfortunately some customers may be without power until later in the day.” Western Power advised that those who see a fallen power line to stay at least 8m away and call the utility’s emergency line on 13 13 51. More information on the blackout situation is available here.