Hundreds of thousands of residents across Sydney have been plunged into darkness by a major power outage during the city’s lockdown.
Frustrated residents trying to work from home in inner-city areas, the eastern suburbs and the city’s south-east lost power just before 11:30am on Monday.
Sydneysiders took to Twitter to seek answers on the sudden blackout, with 300,000 homes and businesses across the city affected by the sudden outage.
Bemused shoppers were seen standing outside a popular Coles in the Westfield Eastgardens in Sydney’s south-east, part of a extensive blackout affecting thousands of residents
Frustrated residents sent a flurry of tweets to Ausgrid asking for an estimated restoration time, as the power outages interrupted thousands of Sydneysiders working from home
A string of stores including Coles, Aldi, Bakers Delight, JB Hi-Fi and Liquorland have also lost power in the Westfield Eastgardens in the city’s south-east.
Confused customers were seen standing outside the store’s darkened shopfronts, unable to shop for their essentials.
Residents in Maroubra in the city’s eastern suburbs have been left completely in the dark, with all traffic lights, shops, homes and businesses without any power.
One business owner placed a sign in their shop window to inform customers they had no electricity, while police officers directed incoming traffic on the roads.
A spokesperson for Ausgrid said the sudden outage was a result of an external party hitting a supply cable during some digging work.
A spokesperson for Ausgrid explained the sudden outage was a result of an external party hitting a supply cable while undertaking digging work
One man tweeted a map of the affected suburbs from the Ausgrid website, before the site crashed for several minutes
Michael Daley, the Maroubra state Labor MP, said emergency crews had been called to the scene to restore power.
‘Ausgrid apologises for the added inconvenience this is causing families in lockdown trying to work from home and home school,’ the MP wrote on Facebook.
Ausgrid has confirmed the power outages across Sydney in a series of tweets.
‘Power is currently out to customers in Banksmeadow, Botany, Eastgardens and surrounding suburbs. Our crew are working to safely restore power’, they said.
Ausgrid tweeted that power is currently out to their customers in Centennial Park, Clovelly, Coogee and surrounding suburbs, as well as in Mascot.
Ausgrid crews have been made aware of the issue and are working to safely restore power, with an estimated restoration time of 1:30pm.
One man who complained of the outage in Coogee got a response from Ausgrid that revealed at least 7000 customers in his area were affected.
One business owner placed a sign in their shop window to inform customers they were had no electricity, while police officers stood on roads to direct traffic
Residents in Maroubra in the city’s eastern suburbs have been left completely in the dark, with all traffic lights, shops, homes and businesses without any power
Ausgrid informed customers on Twitter the estimated restoration time of power in areas across Sydney’s eastern suburbs and south-east is around 1:30pm
Another man tweeted he had contacted Redfern Police to send out traffic control after witnessing a close call on South Dowling Street in Darlinghurst, with traffic systems also affected by the outage.
Multiple residents said they were having trouble accessing the Ausgrid website, which crashed for several minutes as the blackout ensued.
It comes as tens of thousands of residents forced to work from home during Sydney’s lengthening are left without electricity or internet.
An Ausgrid spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that at the height of the blackout, which began at 11:17 and was restored at 12:45, about 43,000 residents were left without power.
The spokesperson explained an unknown contractor undertaking digging work had severed a major supply cable for the Kingsford and Maroubra area.
They said Ausgrid was able to resolve the issue by rerouting power to the affected homes and businesses from another cable.