Thousands left without power amid ongoing heatwave

Thousands of houses in Wagga Wagga are without power as the oppressive heatwave continues to grip parts of NSW. Reports of a blackout were first recorded at about 5.30am on Wednesday, affecting more than 6000 customers. People have been impacted by the blackout across southern NSW, with parts of Wagga Wagga, Culcairn, Henty, Uranquinty, Holbrook and surrounding areas experiencing a power outage. A spokesperson for Essential Energy told NewsWire the outage was “caused by fault on the Transgrid transmission line between Wagga Wagga and Albury and is not related to load shedding”. “The power supply was isolated to keep the community safe until crews could temporarily restore power through a back feeder line just after 9am,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson confirmed residents impacted by the outage were notified of the power outage via SMS on Wednesday. Residents have also been encouraged to stay “at least eight metres away from fallen powerlines or damaged electricity equipment”. This outage comes as thousands of Australians have faced heatwave-related blackouts as temperatures soar across the state. There is no no-known cause for this blackout, with energy distributers investigating the issue. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has since warned that energy supplies may be at “risk” as the sweltering heat continues into Wednesday. “We are experiencing some quite unseasonably hot weather … and effectively that is a summer heatwave while we are still here in spring,” AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman said. Combined with scheduled maintenance works on three of the state’s four coal-fired power stations in Bayswater, Vales Point and Eraring, the AEMO warned residents of a “tightness in electricity supply”. “It is pretty normal both generation and transmission to use periods in autumn and spring to undertake maintenance activities that do need to happen,” he continued.