Energy workers praised for getting the power back on

The Bourke Essential Energy workers who go out on dark and stormy nights to restore the power – l-r: Ben Walsh, Kurt Dickson,George Dickson, Brad Gillard, Bevan Williams and Chad Taylor. Photo TWH

Significant and severe storms swept across parts of western NSW on Sunday night, bringing strong winds and hail causing power outages for more than 13,000 customers across the Upper Western, Western Plains and parts of the Central West, including Bourke, Cobar, Narromine, Nevertire, Nyngan, Trangie, Warren and surrounding areas.

The storms impacted the high voltage electricity network between Narromine and Dubbo and between Trangie and Narromine.

When it was safe to do so, crews assessed the damage to the network before restoration could occur.

One outage impacted more than 8,600 customers around Bourke and other centres at approximately 7.50pm with power restored to most customers around 1.50am on Monday morning.

As at 8am on Monday, around 330 customers were still without power.

Bourke Mayor Lachlan Ford said he was continually amazed with what the Essential Energy staff manage to do out here in very trying times. […]

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