How we plan outages

Planned outages are necessary to ensure that maintenance and upgrade work on our electricity network can be carried out safely. These outages allow us to replace damaged or aging equipment and upgrade the electricity system.  

Maintaining and improving our network is essential for you to have safe, reliable and resilient power supply.  

Each year around 150,000 homes and businesses experience planned outages. 

We understand there’s never a convenient time to have a planned outage, but they are necessary to ensure that your power supply is safe, reliable and resilient. 

Considerations for planning

We aim to minimise the impact of assets and works on customers and communities by coordinating planned outages to minimise downtime. Where possible we engage with the community and plan outages around local events.   When we plan outages, we give special consideration to community service providers and facilities like hospitals, medical centres, GP practices, rest homes and aged care facilities. We look for ways to minimise disruptions, consult with affected customers and provide advanced warning so affected customers can make business continuity plans.    
We also work with large customers such as tertiary education providers, essential council services and commercial and industrial customers to plan outages. 

Unfortunately, we’re unable to supply generators for everyone during planned outages. 
 
See our Generation Policy. 
 

Notice of planned outages

Customers get a letter or an email from their retailer (the company you pay your power bill to). You can also search your address for upcoming planned outages on our planned outages page here.

 

Date changes for planned outages

Sometimes we can change the date of a planned outage if the change doesn’t overly impact our network operations and planning. Contact your retailer (the company you pay your power bill to) and request a change for us to consider. You’ll hear the outcome of the review through your retailer.  

 

Timing of planned outages

We do planned outages during the day so our crews can work safely. We understand there’s never a convenient time to have a planned outage, so thank you for your patience.  

 

What can you do? 

Have a contingency plan ready for planned outages, including a backup strategy for incidents that may disrupt regular business operations. 

 

Solar units and planned outages 

If you have notice of a planned outage, switch the solar unit off prior to the outage if you can. Our crew may remove your service fuse at your service pole or pillar box as an extra precaution, so your power may go off slightly earlier and be restored slightly later than the times in the letter or email from your retailer advising you of the outage.