Lightning takes out Goldfields power
About 3700 Western Power customers in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area were left without electricity on Tuesday afternoon after a thunderstorm swept through the region.
A Western Power spokesman said power was cut at about 4.15pm due to equipment being struck by lightning.
The spokesman said the majority of customers had power restored within 22 minutes of the outage.
Goldfields consumers lost power after the ferocious thunderstorm
Western Power said power users in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Binduli, Coolgardie, Kambalda, Ora Banda and Kanowna were affected.
The Esperance region had its own power troubles last week, with four power outages on the Horizon Power network on November 6.
The worst incident occurred at 1.45pm when it was claimed a contractor trimming trees near Esperance airport caused branches to fall on the powerlines.
One line was brought to the ground, sparking a grass fire that had to be extinguished by emergency services.
The resulting outage cut power to 822 customers from the outskirts of Esperance to Gibson and Salmon Gums for an hour.
A Horizon Power spokesperson said the contractor had failed to notify the company they were undertaking the work, in breach of regulations.
Energysaftey, the State Government’s electricity and gas safety regulator, confirmed yesterday incident was being investigated.
Another three power outages affected the Esperance region on November 6.
The first was at 4am in Hopetoun when a high voltage line went off, leaving 100 customers without power for four hours.
This was followed by a similar outage in Munglinup at 6am, affecting 412 customers for four hours.
At 10.30am, it was the Condingup area’s turn when another line went off, leaving 312 customers powerless for almost three hours.
Horizon Power said the power outages were further complicated by a total fire ban on the day.
The ban meant power had to be restored in sections, resulting in longer periods without power.
The company said the causes of the Hopetoun, Munglinup and Condingup outages were still being investigated.
Further outages in Hopetoun over the weekend led to a part of the system being replaced earlier this week.
