Severe storms wreaked havoc across the state yesterday (Sunday 17 November), with heavy rain and ferocious winds bringing trees down onto powerlines and causing significant, widespread damage to the Essential Energy electricity network.

At the height of the storms, more than 17,000 Essential Energy customers were without power in the southern, central and northern regions of New South Wales. At one stage, over 13,000 of those impacted were in Wagga Wagga and the surrounding areas.

As at 11.30am today, the number of customers without power has been reduced to around 2,300 after crews made significant progress restoring power where it was safe and possible to do so.

Essential Energy crews are working tirelessly in challenging conditions last night and have returned this morning to continue the clean-up, and repair and restoration efforts.

Helicopters have been brought into some areas to assist with assessing damage to the network before some of the more major repairs can be completed. Portable generators are also being brought in to provide limited power to communities where the repairs are expected to take longer.

Customers will be sent an SMS with an estimated time of restoration (ETR) as it becomes available. Some of the times may be impacted while the work is progressing and may alter. Those who aren’t receiving a text message are encouraged to contact their energy retailer to ensure their contact details are up to date. Customers can also find more information via our power outages webpage.

Essential Energy thanks customers for their patience and reminds the public to stay at least eight metres away from fallen powerlines, power poles or damaged electricity infrastructure and report immediately to 132080. If life-threatening, call triple 0. For more information about how to prepare for and stay safe during storms, visit our Storm Safety webpage.