Residents in Injune, Eumamurrin, Bymount, Orange Hill, Mt Moffat and north of Roma will have an emergency power outage today, Wednesday 17 January from 4.30pm to 6.30pm.
Ergon Energy crews are called to tackle an immediate issue of replacing broken insulators on a major 33kv line that looks after 850 customers.
Ergon Energy claims that if the broken insulators are not fixed soon, it could cause a much larger uncontrolled outage.
Brett Judge, Principal Corporate Communications Advisor for Ergon Energy said the emergency power outage is not taken lightly.
“We don’t turn off the power unless we really need to. This is a case where they have found something that requires them to turn the power off so it is safe for them to repair the equipment and get the power back on as quick as they can,” he said.
Brett said insulators are made of ceramic glass which when they take heat over a period of time the insulators get stressed and crack.
During this time residents are urged to leave their fridge and freezers shut unless they ‘absolutely have to’ as their food will go off.
Brett said people can use their backup generators during this time.
“They should operate them outdoors and use the manufacturers instructions.”
