This was published 6 years ago
Tens of thousands of homes lose power in Sydney's inner west
By Justine Landis Hanley
Electricity was cut to almost 40,000 homes in Sydney's inner west on Saturday afternoon.
Homes and businesses lost power in parts of Haberfield, Leichhardt, Summer Hill, Ashfield, Lewisham, Petersham, Croydon just after 1pm.
Power is out in multiple suburbs in Sydney's inner west.Credit: AusGrid via Twitter
Emergency crews worked to bring back power to about 23,000 customers across Sydney's inner west in Homebush and surrounding suburbs, according to AusGrid, which was safely restored around 3pm.
Ausgrid also advised that power was cut to 15,400 customers in parts of Croydon, Ashfield, and Five Dock, but this was restored shortly after 2pm.
An unplanned outage of the main transmission inter-connector between Dumaresq in NSW and Bulli Creek in QLD caused widespread system issues across eastern Australia, according to Ausgrid.
Witnesses say traffic lights also stopped working, causing chaos on the roads and forcing some local business owners to try their hand at traffic conducting.
With many registers down, customers of local businesses were asked to pay in cash, which proved difficult for some given that the power outage temporarily disabled ATMs in the area.
A power blackout in Sydney's inner-west left customers unable to withdraw money.Credit: Ben Grubb
Some shops, including a Coles supermarket in Concord, were forced to close their doors early on the busy Saturday afternoon.
The power outage forced some businesses to close on the busy Saturday afternoon.Credit: Ben Grubb
Other residents took to Twitter to express their frustration over the power blackout, with one user saying they had to forego their lunch plans.