JUST before 2pm on Friday, June 17 during a thunderstorm about 5400 customers in Yanchep lost power.
The next day a few homes in Old Yanchep were still waiting for their power to be restored.
A Western Power spokeswoman told Yanchep News Online that most Yanchep customers had had their power gradually restored using switching, but a small group of 73 were still without power.
Crews were sent to investigate the cause of the network damage and the power was back on for those remaining customers by 11.30am.
Yanchep News Online asked Western Power if lightning had played any role in the power outage.
A Western Power spokeswoman said the outage was due to a fault in an underground section of the network, the ring main unit (RMU).
“The automatic safety device (circuit breaker) interrupted power quickly after detecting the issue, to keep customers safe and minimise equipment damage,’’ she said.
“The underlying cause of the RMU damage is not known, and the electrical impacts of lightning could be a factor.’’
On June 18 some Western Power contractors working near the intersection of Yanchep Beach Rd and Frigate Cres said while they would get the power back it looked like there had been some damage done that down the track would require the power in the area to be turned off but that it would be a planned outage.
The spokeswoman said once the location of the fault was identified and isolated from the rest of the network on 17 June, Western Power was able to reconnect the remaining 73 customers through backfeeding – ‘re-routing’ power.
She said the RMU replacement had been completed on June 28 without requiring a customer outage.
