More than 127,000 without power amid major Victorian outage

More than 127,000 Victorians are still without electricity after storms caused the state’s largest power station to suffer an outage causing train delays and school closures.

More than 127,000 homes and businesses in Victoria were still without power on Wednesday afternoon, down from a peak of 530,000 on Tuesday.

It comes after storms caused the state’s largest power station, AGL Energy’s Loy Yang A coal plant, to suffer an outage on Tuesday.

Florists across Melbourne’s southeast had a sleepless night on Tuesday after their shops lost power just hours before the Valentine’s Day rush.

At Abbadeen Florists in Clayton, Ronnie Flanagan — who was helping her sister prepare for the frantic day — said the store was still without power at 10am on Wednesday.

“It’s chaos. A tree uprooted out the front of the store and the road is blocked,” she said.

“It’s definitely going to affect sales.”

Ms Flanagan said they were using whatever back-up power they could find to keep the flowers cool.

“We’re using a camping battery for now,” she said.

“We’ve got a fridge full of flowers, so we’re really relying on that battery.”

Frank Memeti at Heart to Heart Florists in Noble Park, which suffered damaged stock in the power outage ahead of Valentine’s Day. Picture: David Crosling

Owner of Heart to Heart Florists in Noble Park Afrim Memeti said the power outage had created a “big challenge” for florists in the area who were already stressed about their busiest day of the year.

“Some of our flowers we’ve had to chuck out,” he said.

“We’re hoping we’re able to save the rest but we just have to hope for the best.”

Mr Memeti was one of the lucky florists to have had their power switched back on as the store opened on Wednesday.

He said it reminded him of when former premier Daniel Andrews decided to send the state into a five-day hard lockdown just two days before Valentine’s Day.

“This is just another blow,” he said.

Elizabeth Nguyen from Flowers On Police Rd in nearby Mulgrave said the shop’s automatic doors were shattered by the wild weather on Tuesday, which also cut off their power.

“We had two doors broken, we’re using a generator and a car to cool the flowers this morning,” she said.

The storms knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes. Picture: Vic SES

Popular Glen Waverley Italian restaurant Sette Bello was forced to cancel all of its Valentine’s Day bookings at 10.30am on Wednesday after being told it was unlikely the power would come back on before Sunday.

But just after 2pm — 24 hours since the blackout began — the lights were switched on again, leaving restaurant manager Vladimir Begovic scrabbling to rebook as many patrons as possible.

“We had a full house booked, 140 people, but we weren’t sure when the power would be returned so we called up everyone to cancel,” he said.

Mr Begovic said “luckily” the power returned with enough time before the dinner rush but said they had “definitely lost over $10,000.”

“We’ve only got 40 people coming now, so it won’t be big but we will do what we can,” he said.

The Mulgrave Country Club was another business that was plunged into darkness on Tuesday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the function venue was still yet to regain power.

“Unfortunately, we are closed at the moment due to storm damage from yesterday,” a post on social media read.

“We are doing our best to rectify the situation and will keep you updated here.”

Storm damage in Clayton on Wednesday. Picture: David Crosling

Homes, businesses left in the dark

AGL Energy’s Loy Yang A coal plant went offline shortly after 2pm on Tuesday, with the state government attributing the outage to the physical collapse of six transmission towers due to storm damage.

All four units of the power station were offline on Tuesday, but two units have since returned to service.

AGL said it expected Loy Yang to be running at full capacity within 24 hours.

EnergyAustralia’s Yallourn power station, Victoria’s second largest generator, had two of its units offline for repairs and a further two running at maximum load.

Its gas assets at Newport and Jeeralang also continue to support system capacity.

An EnergyAustralia spokeswoman said the two units were expected to come back online in the coming days.

Wild storms smash Clayton on Tuesday evening. Picture: David Crosling

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) reported that at 5pm, 127,743 homes and businesses were still without power.

Powercor reported 3229 customers in the state’s west and inner Melbourne were offline, down from 11,879 at 7.30am.

United Energy, the main distributor in Melbourne’s southeast and Mornington Peninsula, reported 12,184 customers without power, down from 24,572.

In the city’s northwest, Jemena reported eight customers remain without power, while CitiPower, which covers the CBD and inner suburbs, had 50 customers affected.

In Victoria’s east, AusNet’s outage tracker crashed due to “overwhelming demand”, with about 112,272 customers still affected, down from 236,901 at 7.30am.

Of those affected by the outages, 3104 are power-dependent (on life support or have medical reasons for needing power)

Roughly 12,423 homes or businesses are affected in southeast Melbourne (including the Peninsula); roughly 3319 in western Victoria and roughly 108,415 in eastern Victoria.

Wild storms caused the state’s largest power station to suffer an outage on Tuesday. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake

On Wednesday, AusNet spokesman Steven Neave apologised for the impact to 40 per cent of its customers saying it was going to be “a number of days” until everyone had power restored.

Mr Neave said 400 crews were working around the clock and patrolling 8000km of the distribution network.

“It’s very extensive damage,” he said.

“We had to clear a lot of debris to actually get in to do the assessments.

“We’re making good progress.”

Mr Neave said the towers that were damaged in the storm were built in 1981 but were in a reasonable condition.

Major ‘system failure’

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the storm exposed a major “system failure”.

“These weather events are not new. They are not infrequent anymore,” he said.

Mr Pesutto said he didn’t believe the government’s assurance that power prices wouldn’t increase as a result of the shutdown.

“With due respect, the Premier is simply wrong and doesn’t understand the spot price explosion yesterday will feed into higher tariffs down the line.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud on Wednesday reignited calls for an energy summit, saying Victoria’s broken transmission towers were a stark reminder of the difficulties in transmitting power from the regions to the cities.

Downed transmission towers in Anakie just outside Melbourne.

Mr Littleproud says the problem would become even bigger under Labor’s “reckless race to 82 per cent renewables by 2030” and the merits of nuclear energy should be discussed.

He urged the Prime Minister to reconsider his request for a national energy summit.

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss Paul Guerra warned the Allan government unreliable energy will become “the nail in the coffin” for Victorian business owners, with many now questioning the state’s roadmap to net-zero.

“There was a lot of concern last night around whether freezers and fridges were going to come back online in time for today,” he said.

Mr Guerra said while the industry was supportive of the government’s push to cut emissions, Tuesday’s massive disruption was the first time businesses have “really questioned” the government’s roadmap to net-zero.

“Businesses will start to question if Victoria is the place to be,” he said.

“If we start to question the availability of energy in a reliable and affordable sense, that will be the nail in the coffin.”

“There’s some big decisions that confront Victoria and big decisions that confront the Victorian government.”

Wild weather brought down the powerline towers near Carrs Rd. Picture: Alison Wynd

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil on Wednesday said there were some “really important questions” to ask on how half a million people lost power.

“Really the government’s focus right now is going to be on making sure that Victorians get back up on their feet very quickly,” she told Seven’s Sunrise.

“There’s some really important questions to ask and answer here about how it’s possible that a country like Australia can lose power for half a million people because of a storm, but I do think those questions are for later.”

Storm damage led to classes being cancelled at schools and universities while train commuters faced peak hour chaos with at least nine lines impacted by closures on Tuesday.

Wednesday morning’s commute was also disrupted as power to some train lines still had not been restored.

Wednesday morning’s commute is disrupted by the outage. Picture: Supplied

On Wednesday afternoon, public transport was still experiencing delays.

On Metro Trains, the Belgrave Line was suspended between Ringwood and Belgrave due to an overhead power supply issue in Ringwood area.

On V/Line Trains, Traralgon to Bairnsdale was suspended due to power outages and coaches were replacing trains on the line.

On V/Line Coaches between Ararat and Horsham; services were detouring due to Western Highway closure, causing delays up to 30 minutes.

V/Line coaches were facing delays of between 30 to 60 minutes due to detours around road

closures. Towns unable to be accessed included Great Western, Dadswell Bridge, Trawalla,

Beaufort and Buangor.

SCHOOLS, EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRES

At 3pm on Wednesday, 80 school sites and early childhood services were closed as a result of severe weather, access issues, and power, water and sewage issues.

Education Minister Ben Carroll said some school across the state were “dealing with extremely challenging situations” on Wednesday.

“Some are having to close as a result of fire warnings/power outages,” he said.

“Schools are making every effort to support school communities including supervision for students where required by families.”

The Department of Education received 112 reports of power outages in government schools and 40 reports of storm damage.

Independent schools closures

Tintern Grammar

Thomas Aquinas College Tynong

St Leonard’s College

Mater Christi College Belgrave

Salesian College Chadstone

State school closures at 9am

(according to the Department of Education website)

SOUTHEAST VICTORIA

Avonsleigh Kindergarten, Avonsleigh

Beaconsfield Kindergarten, Beaconsfield

Cockatoo Kinder, Cockatoo

Emerald Preschool, Emerald

Gembrook Preschool, Gembrook

Upper Beaconsfield Community Early Learning Centre, Upper Beaconsfield

Upper Beaconsfield Kindergarten, Upper Beaconsfield

Upper Beaconsfield McBride Road Kindergarten, Upper Beaconsfield

NORTHEASTERN VICTORIA REGION

Cooinda Kindergarten, Boronia

Goodstart Early Learning Rowville – Murrindal Drive, Rowville

Mt Dandenong Preschool, Mount Dandenong

Warburton Preschool, Warburton

Warrandyte Childcare and Preschool Centre Co-operative Limited, Warrandyte

John Monash Science School, Clayton

Oakleigh South Secondary College, Oakleigh South

NORTHWESTERN VICTORIA REGION

Community Kids Golden Square Early Education Centre, Golden Square

Creative Garden Early Learning Centre Bendigo, Jackass Flat

Dunolly PS TheirCare, Dunolly

First Grammar Bendigo, Flora Hill

Great Beginnings Epsom, Epsom

Macedon Early Learning Centre, Macedon

Macedon Kindergarten, Macedon

SOUTHWESTERN VICTORIA REGION

After The Bell Aus- St Arnaud Primary School, St Arnaud

Anglesea Kindergarten, Anglesea

Ararat Early Learning Centre Stawell West OSHC, Ararat

Bani Manya Kindergarten, Horsham

Beulah Outreach Preschool, Beaulah

Big Childcare – Apsley PS OSHC, Apsley

Big Childcare – St Arnaud PS OSHC, St Arnaud

Concongella Primary School Council OSHC, Concongella

Cooinda Kindergarten, Stawell

Edenhope Early Childhood Service, Edenhope

Goroke Preschool, Goroke

Horsham YMCA OSHC, Horsham

Jan Juc Preschool, Jan Juc

Jeparit Kindergarten, Jeparit

Lorne Kindergarten, Lorne

Marrang Kindergarten & Early Learning Centre, Stawell

Minyip Kindergarten, Minyip

Murtoa College OSHC, Murtoa

Nhill Early Learning Centre, Nhill

Pomonal OSHC, Pomonal

St Arnaud Early Learning Centre, St Arnaud

Uniting Family Day Care – Wimmera, Horsham

Warracknabeal 3 year old program, Warracknabeal

Warracknabeal 3 year old program – Wheatlands District Church, Warracknabeal

Warracknabeal Memorial Kindergarten, Warracknabeal

Warracknabeal Neighbourhood House Take a Break Child Care Centre, Warracknabeal

Warracknabeal Uniting Early Learning, Warracknabeal

Halls Gap Primary School, Halls Gap

Pomonal Primary School, Pomonal

Woady Yaloak Primary School – Smythesdale Campus, Smythesdale

Woady Yaloak Primary School – Scarsdale Campus, Scarsdale

Woady Yaloak Primary School – Ross Creek Campus, Ross Creek