More than 120,000 Victorians could be without electricity for more than a week following power system event

Victorians suffering without power since a significant power system event on Tuesday have had their pain compounded after it was revealed they may have to wait more than a week to have their electricity restored.

The largest power generator in the state, Loy Yang A Power Station in south-eastern city Traralgon suffered a major outage in the afternoon where all four units went offline.

Severe storms across the state caused powerlines to fall while the Moorabool to Sydenham 500 kilovolt transmission lines were tripped.

A peak of 530,000 customers were without electricity in Victoria with emergency crews working to repair damaged powerlines and critical energy infrastructure.

According to an update about 5pm Wednesday, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) announced about 127,743 homes and businesses remained without power, down from 280,000 in the morning.

As of 5pm, it was reported more than 112,000 of the customers suffering a blackout were with AusNet Services, 12,184 with United Energy and 3,229 with Powercor Australia.

AEMO warned it could take “days or more than a week” for electricity to be restored for customers.

“Vegetation clearing and repairs to damaged powerlines and poles continue. However, given the extent of the widespread damage, it may take days or more than a week in extreme circumstances to restore electricity to all of those impacted,” AEMO’s statement said.

“For safety reasons, please do not approach fallen powerlines and call the faults and emergency number for your electricity distribution company on your electricity bill.”

AEMO confirmed a significant power system event occurred in Victoria early in the afternoon on Tuesday and said it was investigating the cause of the transmission lines tripping as well as the power station going offline.

AusNet Services began controlled load shedding as an “absolute last resort” in order to prevent long-term damage to system infrastructure.

As a result of the outage, electricity spot prices reached their ceiling level of $16,600 per MW-hour in Victoria and Tasmania.

Customers had to turn their own power off to avoid being charged an astronomical price for electricity.