Traffic chaos as thousands without power
More than 16,000 Sydneysiders woke to no power in their homes, while traffic lights on busy roads were cut off after a mass outage.
Residents across the city’s inner-west were left without electricity from 5.50am on Wednesday.
The unplanned outage affected 16,620 customers across Leichhardt, Balmain, Drummoyne, Five Dock, Rozelle, Abbotsford, Birchgrove, Balmain East, Russell Lea, Wareemba and Rodd Point.
Much of the outage was resolved by 8am.
However, Ausgrid said 2524 residents in Leichhardt, Balmain and Rozelle remain without power at about 8am.
The power outage affected homes, businesses and several traffic lights on Victoria Road near the Iron Cove Bridge at Drummoyne.
Traffic lights were also down on suburban streets in Balmain.
Drivers have been advised to exercise caution in the area and allow extra travel time.
“The network has protections like a home, that trips when the system detects an issue to protect the safety of our communities,” a spokeswoman from Ausgrid said.
“Emergency crews are investigating this network issue in a substation in Homebush that supplies the Balmain and Drummoyne area. We will begin safely restoring customers in the area in the next 30 minutes, and apologise for the disruption this morning.”
