50,000 homes and businesses without power in Perth overnight

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Western Power crews are continuing to restore power to 21,000 customers affected by outages overnight caused by pole damage from recent weather across Perth and Midwest areas in WA.

At peak, around 50,000 homes and businesses were affected overnight with around 27,000 being restored by back-feeding power around the damaged sections of the network.

All crews who were scheduled to complete other planned work have been directed to repair the damage and ensure the safe restoration of power as quickly as possible.

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Western Power says it is dealing with around 100 poles, in various locations throughout the metro area that have been damaged through humidity and moisture. There were around 50 pole-top fires.

When there are misty and/or humid conditions (generally along the coast) or light drizzling rain, this can combine with dust and pollution and create a paths or “tracks” on the insulators which lets electricity jump across.

Crews are working to restore power as quickly as possible.

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