Ausgrid report that 140,000 customers in NSW were impacted or lost power last night Jan 15th 2025 .. Part 7

Ausgrid released a statement earlier this morning stating that 140,000 customers had their electricity impacted during last night’s thunderstorms, with a stretch between Sydney and Newcastle being the worst affected area. The full statement from the distribution provider is below:

Extra Ausgrid emergency crews have worked throughout the night to remove electrical hazards caused by significant storm damage. In total 140,000 customers were impacted and power has been restored power to 50,000 homes and businesses. Customers have reported over 560 electrical hazards including fallen wires, trees and branches on powerlines.

The main impacted areas include:

• • 66k Newcastle (Coastal areas, Raymond Terrace, Port Stephens, Tomago)
  • 31k Sydney (Northern Suburbs, Hornsby, Pennant Hills)
  • 4k Central Coast (Copacabana, MacMasters Beach)

Life support customers who are without power should activate their Plan B and customers are reminded to be aware of their surrounds when travelling to work today. Look out for fallen powerlines that may be hidden by debris. Don’t touch any fallen wires they may be live and stay at least 8 metres away.

Crews will continue to work today to restore power to customers as quickly as possible, however due to the scale of this event, it will take some time. As we continue to assess the damage we will be able to provide more accurate restore times on our website’s power outage map.

The Newcastle Herald are also reporting that 32,000 homes in the Hunter region between Branxton and Scone were without power yesterday evening.

The relationships between all the events that occured yesterday afternoon/evening is still unclear to us, but late last night we also spotted Market Notice #123354, published by the AEMO at 10:45pm (NEM time). It stated that two 132 kV lines north of Newcastle tripped with load shedding avoided, but 80MW of bulk electrical load disconnected:

MARKET NOTICE 123354
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Notice ID 123354
Notice Type ID Emergency events/conditions
Notice Type Description MARKET
Issue Date Wednesday, January 15, 2025
External Reference Non-credible contingency event - NSW region - 15/01/2025
__________________________________________________________________________________________

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE.

Non-credible contingency event - NSW region - 15/01/2025

At 2019 hrs the Tomago - Taree (963) 132kV line and the Tomago - Brandy Hill (96C) 132kV line tripped.

AEMO did not instruct load shedding.

AEMO has been advised of disconnection of 80 MW of bulk electrical load.

The cause of this non credible contingency event is not known at this stage.

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

As time permits, we will do some digging to further understand the series of events that unfolded yesterday afternoon and evening.