Electricity is an amazing thing. It’s an essential energy source that keeps modern life running. From surfing the internet on our phones to lighting our homes and powering our appliances, we rely on electricity more and more every day. But when there’s an outage, it can become quite challenging! In Townsville alone we experience unexpected power outages for many reasons, such as tropical cyclones, bushfires, accidents or routine maintenance. But don’t worry! This guide is here for your support. We outline all critical steps for dealing with a power outage in Townsville! Let’s start!
Why the Power Outage in Townsville?
Power outages in Townsville are becoming an increasingly common occurrence! And by understanding their root causes, we can all work together in planning and responding accordingly during emergencies involving various power outages.
- Extreme Weather Conditions: Townsville’s position in northern Queensland makes it susceptible to extreme weather events like tropical cyclones and floods. For example, in February 2025, Tropical Cyclone Kirri caused extensive power outages for over 10,000 customers in Townsville and Borden areas. In the same month, Townsville experienced a once-in-a-century flood, which caused power outages to more than 2,000 households.
- Equipment Failures: Electrical outages may result from aging or defective electrical equipment, like in May 2021, when an explosion at Callide Power Station affected approximately 477,000 households and businesses across Queensland.
- Maintenance and upgrades: Power companies work tirelessly to upgrade and upgrade the grid. So everyone has safe access to power. As part of these essential activities, temporary power outages may occur to maintain strong infrastructure that keeps our power flowing reliably and safely.
- Accidents: Vehicle collisions that strike power poles often result in power outages in localized areas.
- Wildlife: It is remarkable how birds and small mammals, for instance, can come into contact with power facilities that generate electricity, leading to short circuits that cause power outages and short-circuiting the system altogether.
- Overloaded Grid: When demand spikes (like increasing A/C use during hot summer days), the power grid may become overburdened and cause power outages.
Different Types of Power Outages
Based on their cause, power outages typically fall under one of three types.
Planned outages
Electric companies carefully coordinate planned outages. It provides the opportunity to upgrade power facilities, such as replacing aged transformers with more reliable ones and installing additional cables, to improve stability and meet demand for electricity supply.
At all times, regular maintenance and inspection are done to safeguard the power system’s safety. Be assured, their various channels, such as their official website, mobile apps, community announcements and text messages, will notify you well ahead of any essential outages, so you can plan accordingly.
In Townsville, for instance, power company workers will upgrade old supply lines onto the smart grid during daytime hours on weekends. Therefore, planned outages of this nature typically last between 4-8 hours, giving everyone ample notice.
Unplanned outages
Unplanned outages often arise suddenly and unexpectedly. For example, during hurricane season, strong winds could take out power poles with gusts as strong. Heavy rainstorms often result in short circuits. Lightning strikes also can damage power facilities! During Townsville’s cyclone, many utility poles were toppled down, plunging many areas into darkness for three days due to power outages. At this time supermarkets risked perishable food spoilage!
Rolling blackouts
Rolling blackouts provide an invaluable service in maintaining power supply equivalency. Rolling blackouts usually occur during times when electricity demand peaks, like summer peak electricity periods when power systems can become extremely stretched.
But don’t worry, the power companies have your back! They’re taking measures to ensure our region has enough power and to prevent its collapse. Power outages will be scheduled in accordance with predetermined schedules in various parts of the region.
Townsville residents using air conditioners or cooling equipment during the heat of summer often put strain on power sources by overusing air conditioning units, placing additional demand on power distribution infrastructure.
The power company has come up with an ingenious solution: they’ll divide the city into multiple sections, and each will experience a power outage for 2-3 hours on alternate days in order to balance supply and demand, maintaining stable operations of their system. You will be informed well in advance, giving plenty of time for planning purposes! You should take advantage of any power-saving opportunities during these outages!
How Do I Report a Power Outage in Tasmania?
Ergon Energy offers a 24-hour hotline at 13 16 70 for reporting Townsville power outages. When an outage happens at any hour of day or night, they’re there for you and ready to accept reports about what happened.
Where Are the Most Power Outages in Townsville?
Power outages impact all areas of Townsville, with Belgian Gardens, Castle Hill and North Ward being particularly hard hit during cyclone season.
How to Prepare Before a Power Outage in Townsville?
Create an Emergency Plan
An emergency plan should serve as the cornerstone of your defense against power outages or any other emergencies that threaten to disrupt life as normal, keeping everyone connected, safe, and ready to respond appropriately. Your plan should include emergency contacts, evacuation routes and essential supplies that ensure continuity for you and your loved ones in case an unexpected power outage strikes or another disaster unfolds.
Practice makes perfect! Don’t just create your plan, practice it as well. Arrange regular family drills to simulate different emergency scenarios, whether that is power outages at night, extreme weather events, or emergencies when only some family members are home. Designate an evacuation meeting place so everyone knows where they need to head during an evacuation drill.
Preparing for power outages and taking preventive steps ahead of time will alleviate stress while helping ensure that you and your family remain safe from potential danger.
Stock Emergency Supplies
Now that your emergency plan is in place, let’s examine some essential supplies you should include in an emergency kit.
- Food and Water: Make sure that you store non-perishable non-cooked items, like canned goods, energy bars, or dried fruit, in case cooking becomes impossible in an emergency situation.
- First Aid Kit: Be prepared by stockpiling an emergency first aid kit containing bandages, antiseptic wipes, painkillers and any necessary prescription medication that will reduce infection risks while alleviating discomfort in an event of minor traumas or injuries sustained due to blackout conditions.
- Flashlights and batteries: Be sure to have multiple flashlights for every room of the house as well as extra batteries handy for unexpected events or tasks that involve searching in low light environments, like finding objects. A headlamp may also come in handy to free your hands up for more efficient searching efforts in dark places.
Invest in Backup Power
Having a backup power source during a power outage will help you to cope with the challenge more easily. A backup power source is an invaluable ally when faced with a prolonged power outage, as it provides additional power to keep essential appliances running.
EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 portable power station’s large capacity battery can power multiple important devices simultaneously, from your refrigerator and Wi-Fi router to mobile phones, helping keep life normal during an outage.
Charge Devices
Make sure all mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, are fully charged before an expected power outage so you can access emergency information as well as entertain yourself! Not forgetting energy storage devices!
Leaving energy storage devices unrecharged quickly drains them of power, leading to power outages in no time at all. Portable solar panelsoffer another reliable option to stay powered during an outage. You just place one outside, turn sunlight into electricity for charging devices, such as keeping phones fully charged during an emergency situation! It’s also a great solution, when you take home off grid.
What to Do During A Power Outage in Townsville?
Keep Refrigerators & Freezers Closed
If there’s a power cut, try not to open the fridge and freezer too much. Every time you open the fridge or freezer, the inside gets hotter, and a lot of cold air gets let out. Keeping the doors closed can help keep the food in there cooler for longer, so it won’t spoil as easily.
Unplug Electronics
Unplug all electrical appliances. Surges can damage appliances when power returns after an outage, particularly electronics like TVs and computers.
Use Alternative Lighting
As soon as your power goes out and darkness falls, lighting becomes crucial. Prior to an outage occurring, make sure your flashlight and emergency lights have been charged up. These will serve as reliable illumination sources during such times of darkness. Candles should only be lit safely away from anything that might start a fire hazard .
Conclusion
Power outages may be disruptive to life, but with proper preparation we can cope. By creating an emergency plan, using an emergency generator for home and gathering essential supplies before an outage strikes you can minimize its effect. Townsville weather can often be unpredictable, so hopefully this guide will equip you to face future power outages with greater ease while remaining organized when an event does happen. Get yourself prepared now so you won’t worry anymore about power outages in Townsville!
FAQs
How long do power outages typically last in Townsville?
Small local line faults usually restore power within hours (the power outage duration is roughly 2-4). However, large natural disasters like hurricanes often leave greater damages to supply facilities than expected and take several days or even a week or more for recovery.
Is there a way to receive notifications about power outages?
The Ergon Energy website and app provide useful sources of information. They’ll tell you about planned power outages as well as unexpected ones if necessary. Plus you can register to receive text message updates via Ergon’s site as soon as any power issues arise! Local radio stations such as ABC North Queensland Radio often broadcast outages immediately once discovered so residents have immediate access to that knowledge.
What should I do if my power is still out after the official restoration time?
Before calling Ergon Energy about why there’s still no power despite their official restoration time announcement, first ensure that every plug and switch in your home is connected and the distribution box switch hasn’t tripped. Sometimes a minor fault in the internal wiring of a house can result in power outages.
Otherwise, if all is in order, call them immediately, explaining that power still has not returned even though restoration time was announced.