Power finally restored to outback city after emergency generator failed

Power has been returned to residents across the far west of New South Wales more than 24 hours after an emergency back-up generator failed.

Transcript

00:00Residents in the Far West have progressively had their power turned back on as of 4.30

00:07yesterday afternoon.

00:08But we did hear from some locals that some didn't receive power until 9.30 or even midnight

00:14last night.

00:15And to be honest, there's not a lot of confidence about the reliability of the power even today

00:20because what's been done is there's load sharing, which essentially means some people are being

00:24pulled off so that others can have consistent power for a few hours, and then that's continuing

00:29until now.

00:30Now, obviously, that's left a lot of locals feeling quite frustrated, including business

00:34owners, and they've been pointing quite a few fingers at TransGrid, and they're not

00:39alone.

00:40Premier Chrisman spoke a little bit about that this morning, and we'll hear from him.

00:44When it comes to privatised utilities that are essential services that have previously

00:49been provided by the government, we're going to make sure that the contracts are followed,

00:53and if there's penalties to be imposed, of course, we're going to do that.

00:57TransGrid provided us with a statement this morning.

01:00They say they're still working hard to install generators into the system so that more consistent

01:05power can be provided to residents of the Far West, and that includes not just Broken

01:09Hill, but the likes of Menindee and Wilcannia and Tibbabara and unincorporated Far West.

01:15They also told us that one of their primary goals is to install temporary poles to seven

01:21of the towers that were notched down, and that requires us to go back a little bit to

01:25Wednesday last week when the storm hit in the Far West, that notched some of the key

01:29infrastructure out, the towers went down because of a tornado, and so they're working to restore

01:34that now.

01:35They've told us that the plans, the design of the replacement line is complete, so really

01:40now it just comes to having the machinery on the ground, which they say is on site now,

01:45and they're just really working through that plan.

01:48They've been very apologetic to the community, but nevertheless, locals are frustrated.

01:52They feel that this should have never happened, and really that they've been abandoned because

01:58of where they live.

01:59The fact that they live in the Far West, in a regional area, and that they aren't prioritised

02:03as such.

02:04And we'll hear from a couple of locals that we spoke to this morning.

02:08It's just a shame there's not more investment in infrastructure for Broken Hill and Menindee,

02:12Wilcannia, Whitecliffs, etc.

02:14Because it's, you know, just because we're sort of far, far west, we shouldn't be treated

02:20like second-class citizens.

02:23These storms are going to get more and more.

02:26The temperature and climate is changing, so I think they should have had some backup.

02:34So clearly locals are very frustrated, and there's no doubt that when Premier Chris Minns

02:39visits Broken Hill tomorrow, many of those same questions and concerns will be put to

02:44him.

02:45So we'll keep you updated on how that goes and how the community engages with him.