Lightning strikes take out power: 6000 outages and counting

Powercor crews are scrambling to restore power to homes in the wake of a second storm front sweeping across western Victoria.

Lightning strike: Power is being taken out by repeated waves of storms sweeping across southwest Victoria.

Western Victoria is being hit with a wave of power outages as lightning strikes from powerful convective storms hit the network.

Western Victorian distributor Powercor told The Weekly Times it had restored power to most of the 20,000 homes and businesses that were taken out last night.

But the current front passing across the state’s southwest had left another 6000 homes as of 1pm today, with the expectation that lightning strikes may take out even more as the storms move through.

Power outages across Western Victoria as of 1pm today

“We saw this coming so rostered on crews over three days so we were able to restore faults quickly,” a Powercor spokesman said.

“New storm fronts are crossing at the moment and we’re seeing more faults.”

In October Victoria was hit with powerful storms that left thousands of households, farmers and other businesses without power for weeks.

But unlike October’s storms, where wind and fallen trees took out powerlines, this time Powercor is reporting it’s lightning that’s disrupting supplies.

“People should keep well clear of powerlines,” the spokesman said.