Essential Energy crews are working to restore power throughout the Northern Rivers, Riverina and Central West areas of NSW after more than 21,200 customers were impacted by power outages following destructive storms on the weekend.

Crews worked tirelessly to assess the damage with an initial focus on keeping the community safe from damaged electricity infrastructure such as fallen powerlines, while locating faults in the network.

On Sunday, the powerline that feeds electricity to the Northern Rivers towns of Woodburn, Evans Head, Lismore and surrounding areas was damaged during storms. Access to reach the line to make repairs was challenging, with a major repair required amongst swamp lands.

Crews from other depots were brought in to assist with repairs as quickly as safety would allow, while a helicopter was brought in to assist with identifying damage more quickly.

Initially, more than 10,500 customers were without power. As of Monday morning, about 3,500 customers remained without power with an estimated time of restoration of 4pm today (Monday 9 December).

In the Riverina region, more than 6,000 customers were left without power following severe weather and destructive winds that swept across much of the state on Saturday.

Most customers have had their power restored, though a small number remain without power.

In the towns of West Wyalong, Yenda and surrounding regions, a further 4,600 customers were left without power from Friday afternoon through to Sunday.

Most customers had power restored by Sunday night, with power being fully restored today.

Customers are sent an SMS with the estimated restoration time as we become aware of it. Those who aren’t receiving a text message are encouraged to contact their energy retailer to ensure their contact details are up to date.

Essential Energy thanks the community for its patience while our teams work to safely restore power and remind the community to stay at least eight metres away from fallen powerlines, damaged electricity equipment, fires or trees contacting powerlines, and immediately report it to Essential Energy on 13 20 80 or call Triple-0 if the situation is life-threatening.

Customers can view outage information, updates as well as outage tips on Essential Energy’s website at essentialenergy.com.au/outages.

Repairs were made to a major powerline in swamp land between Woodburn and Lismore in the Northern Rivers area of NSW.