Power slowly being restored after backup generator fails overnight

Power has been restored again to parts of Broken Hill in far-west New South Wales after a second back-up generator failed overnight.

Transcript

00:00Nearly 7 hours on from the power outage that occurred overnight, residents in Broken Hill

00:07and surrounding properties are finally starting to have their power be returned to them.

00:13It has had to be done in segments because of fears around overloading the backup generator

00:18that is supporting the town.

00:20And in a statement to the ABC, TransGrid have told us that the reason the backup generator

00:26was taken offline was because they detected a fault and it was a requirement for all safety

00:31concerns to take it offline at 2.30 in the morning.

00:35We did hear from residents outside of Broken Hill but within the far west at areas like

00:40Wilcannia or Menindee that they had their power taken off last night for around two

00:45hours and then it was eventually brought back again.

00:48But as you can see from ongoing reporting today that it really has been quite a tumultuous

00:5324 hours and really last seven days.

00:56I've heard from business owners who said they've been pouring water into bottles and freezing

01:01them to keep their products in the fridge cool overnight if there was to be an outage.

01:05People are trying to cook dinners on gas barbecues and the such.

01:09And lots of people are going out as well to try and purchase generators for themselves.

01:15And in part, you know, we've also had EFTPOS machines go down which requires sort of that

01:19need for cash.

01:20And we did speak with the local credit union about this.

01:24We'll hear from them now.

01:25I think the main problem that people are having is that despite the digital platforms and

01:30card payments still working, the telecommunications problem has meant that EFTPOS has been problematic.

01:36So we have had people in here looking for cash so that they could buy generators.

01:40We have had people from Wilcannia come in to get cash so that they can use that in their

01:46communities.

01:47So just being open has been able to solve that problem for them.

01:51So as you can hear, people are really making the best out of a bad situation.

01:55The latest from Transgrid is that their works on the towers that were knocked out over the

02:01last week during that thunderstorm and even possible tornado, the works on that are on

02:07track and they are still hoping to hit that November 6th deadline of having everyone's

02:12power restored by then.