The premier, Daniel Andrews, says outages were substation faults, not supply problems

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Rain may be soaking Victoria but the legacy of the state’s hot spell continues, as politicians squabble over who is to blame for tens of thousands of households losing power.

Late on Monday some customers had gone almost 24 hours without power, including during Victoria’s hottest night this summer.

Almost 50,000 Victorian properties were blacked out at one time on Sunday as temperatures hit the high 30Cs in Melbourne, with energy distributors pointing to substation fuse faults amid record demand.

The premier, Daniel Andrews, was eager to stress that the issue was with poles, wires and substations rather than a lack of supply.

Hot weather has Victoria and South Australia sweltering Read more

“This was not a power supply issue, this was about distribution and localised faults,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.

“There was sufficient energy, more than sufficient energy, to supply the entirety of our state.”

That reasoning did not keep the state opposition from chiding the government for failing to keep the lights on, by ensuring the network can handle its population.

“It’s the minister for energy’s job to ensure the network is up to the capacity that is required,” the opposition leader, Matthew Guy, told reporters.

The Australian Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said the incident was further evidence both sides of government hadn’t properly managed Australia’s energy system.

“We’ve got to realise that the era of flogging off public utilities to the highest bidder and hoping that they’re going to deliver efficient reliable, cost-effective services to consumers – that’s over,” he said, pointing to an upcoming Greens energy policy.

Just before 5pm on Monday, some 7,000 Victorian properties were still without power, including more than 4,500 in distributor United Energy’s network, which a spokeswoman confirmed were linked to Sunday’s extreme weather.

Andrews said the state government would look closely at network faults and what could be done to improve them, while indicating there was scope for compensation from energy companies.

“We’ll compel them if we have to, both to look at compensation and to look at improvements in that network,” he said.

The debate came as heat made way for storms in Melbourne, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning of heavy rainfall and isolated thunderstorms in Victoria’s central and western areas late on Monday, which would move east overnight.

Between 30mm and 50mm of rainfall was expected by 9.30pm, with up to 80mm in some areas.