Overnight blackout in Orange lasts nearly three hours

By Peter Holmes

The Essential Energy map showing the blackouts at 12:30am Wednesday.

4am Wednesday:

Shift workers, night owls, insomniacs and people rising to spend a penny were among those most keenly affected as parts of Orange were plunged into darkness when power was cut for nearly three hours overnight.

Fallen power lines were to blame for the blackout in North Orange shortly after midnight.

Essential Energy advised that 1,663 "customers" were impacted.

McDonald’s in North Orange was also affected, but didn’t lose all power.

The incident occurred at 12:06am Wednesday.

According to an early map published overnight by Essential Energy, roads that went dark included parts of Hill and Peisley streets and Roselawn Drive, and streets on the northern side of the Northern Distributor.

However a map published a few hours later by Essential Energy had removed the northern side of the Northern Distributor from the areas that lost power.

The 24-hour McDonald’s in North Orange didn’t suffer a full blackout, however some equipment was briefly affected.

Residents who were still awake just after midnight headed to social media to try and establish what was going on.

Residents jumped on social media to find out what was happening.

At about 1:30am today The Orange News Examiner phoned Essential Energy and was met with a recorded message saying the phone lines had been inundated with calls, and a request that only emergencies proceed to speak to an operator.

At about 2:50am lights came back on, fridges started humming and ceiling fans resumed whirring.

At the time of publication the exact location and cause of the fallen power lines were not known. Orange Fire Station was not called to assist with the fallen power lines.

Electricity supplier Ausgrid states that power lines "can be damaged by fallen trees, lightning strikes, car accidents, vandalism, fires, birds or other animals, and flying debris during high winds".