High winds were the main cause of the unplanned outages which affected areas around Tamworth, Barraba, Quirindi, Werris Creek and Narrabri.

By midnight crews had worked to reduce the number of homes and businesses affected to 1191. At 3am the affected homes was at 770 and then 610 at 6am.

READ ALSO:

Crews have continued to work through Thursday and at 3pm the number of homes and businesses with an unplanned power outage due to the storms had been reduced to 286. Work continued into the evening and crews hoped to have power restored to the majority of customers on Thursday.

Additional crews and equipment have been assisting local crews make repairs and restore power for customers.

The worst affected areas were in and around the wider Quirindi, Spring Ridge and Werris Creek areas with the main damage being fallen powerlines and power poles due to the high winds and fallen trees, and faulty transformers caused by the storm.

For safety reasons, total fire bans in the area also meant that powerlines had to be fully patrolled prior to power being restored after the storm.

Essential Energy thanked customers for their patience and understanding as crews have worked as quickly as safety allowed to make repairs and restore power for customers after the storm.