About power outages

Electricity faults can be broken down into three key categories, based on the duration and outcome of the outage:

Permanent fault
A significant power supply shortage that may occur due to a fault on a power line. Power is automatically restored once the fault is cleared.

Brownout
A temporary drop in voltage, causing a partial outage. System capacity is reduced, so the voltage level can sometimes be described as experiencing a 'dip'. Electricity will still flow, but at lower levels, so a key indicator could be seeing your lightbulbs dim.

Blackout
Total loss of power to a specific area. The length of the outage will depend on the severity of the fault. In a blackout, you will not have access to electricity supply through your mains.

Planned outages

Unless it’s an emergency, we'll let you know at least three days before a planned power interruption.

Your local office will be in touch through advertising, phone, email, SMS or letter with the dates and times which may impact you. We'll also post the outage to our website and mobile app.

Occasionally we need to cancel a planned outage because of extreme weather or other network priority. We’ll try to let you know if that’s the case.

Unplanned outages

If your power goes out unexpectedly, visit the outage finder on our website or download the Horizon Power mobile app to get the most up to date outage information - including estimated restoration times.

You can also phone our 24/7 fault line on 13 23 51.  

Visit the outage finder on our website or download the Horizon Power mobile app to get the most up to date outage information - including estimated restoration times. You can also phone our 24/7 fault line on 13 23 51.  

When a fault occurs, our 24/7 local response team will be notified.

While we can sometimes remotely and automatically restore power, there may be times when our crew need to patrol the power lines, locate the actual fault and visually inspect the damage to ensure it is safe to restore power.

Our network is vast, and our crews may need to travel to multiple locations to inspect and repair damage to electrical assets. This can take time, especially during extreme weather events when access may be restricted or unsafe.

Once on site, our crew will assess the damage and the work that’s required to restore power and an updated outage restoration time will be posted to our website and mobile app.

We recognise it’s frustrating when power restoration times change or aren’t specific enough. We work hard to assess the cause of an unexpected power outage as quickly as possible so we can update you with the most accurate information.

When we respond to a potential network fault, we will must first ensure the site is safe for our crews and for the community.

We will then assess the damage and prioritise the order of repairs so power to the greatest number of customers can be restored as soon as possible, along with power to essential health and community services.

Once we complete the repairs, the typical sequence in the restoration process is as follows (with some occurring simultaneously):

1. Essential services 
   Efforts to restore power to emergency service and critical community infrastructure is a priority - such as hospitals, police, ambulance, fire brigade and water treatment facilities.
2. High voltage lines
   Bulk transmission lines are the backbone of the network, supplying power to many customers across a large geographic area.
3. Localised faults
   Affects clusters of homes and businesses and involves distribution powerlines which connect to individual locations such as powerlines in local streets.
4. Individual homes and businesses
   When network repairs are completed, service lines that connect power to individual homes and businesses are repaired.

Depending on the cause of the outage and number of faults affecting the network, repair work on one fault may restore power to individual homes and businesses at different times.

Similarly, there are numerous powerlines that are not necessarily interconnected, which means that restoring power to a line may return power to some customers, but not others on the same street or neighbourhood.

This can also make it difficult to estimate a restoration time for a town or suburb that is meaningful for all affected customers in that area, as power may not be restored all at once.