Power outage for Uralla, Walcha and surrounds
Published on 08 September 2020
To enable work to be safely completed on the electricity network which supplies power to customers in Uralla, Walcha, and the surrounding areas, a planned power outage will affect all homes and businesses in those locations later this month.
Essential Energy’s Operations Manager Ranges, Paul McWilliam, said crews would complete a number of projects in the one planned power outage, and carry out the work overnight, to minimise the inconvenience on customers.
“The catalyst for the planned power outage is to relocate a power pole near the TransGrid substation in Armidale, so that they can complete upgrade work at their facility,” Paul said.
TransGrid operates and manages the high voltage electricity transmission network in NSW and ACT.
“To minimise the number of planned power outages affecting customers, crews will also use the outage to complete other work on the electricity network including replacing several power pole cross-arms which have reached end of life, and maintenance of a circuit breaker and repairs to a transformer at a zone substation,” Paul said.
The planned power outage will affect more than 4,600 customers in Uralla, Walcha, Yarrowitch, Nowendoc, Woolbrook, Kentucky, Arding River, Rocky River, Hillgrove, Wollomombi, Ebor and surrounding rural areas between 10.30pm on Sunday, 20 September and 3.30am on Monday, 21 September 2020. Affected homes and businesses have been notified of the power outage.
“While it’s not always possible, the planned power outage has been scheduled to take place overnight to reduce the inconvenience for local homes and businesses,” Paul said.
As part of their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Essential Energy has developed operational protocols to ensure employee, contractor and community safety during their works.
“We appreciate that planned power outages can be inconvenient and thank customers for their understanding as we work to ensure the electricity network remains safe and reliable,” Paul said.
The project is dependent on suitable weather conditions and may be postponed if conditions are unfavourable or unforeseen circumstances arise.
For further information on the outage please visit Essential Energy's Planned Power Outage website online here.