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How Long Do Power Outages Last?
How Long Do Power Outages Last?
Written by
Rachel Gregg
Edited by
Andrew Kemp
Reviewed by
Julia PaszkaCompare Electricity & Gas Plans
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Long story short
Power outages are breaks in your electricity supply
Outages can hit without warning, thanks to storms or accidents, or be scheduled for safe maintenance work.
There are different types of outages
Brownouts, rolling blackouts, and unplanned outages all behave differently, from flickering lights to temporary power cuts across suburbs.
How long you’ll be without power really depends on the problem
Some outages last minutes, others with damage to power lines and poles could take hours or days. Your distributor should send SMS updates on the outage’s progress.
What are power outages?
A power outage occurs when power stops flowing from the electricity network to an area. Lost power can happen with little to no warning or be pre-planned for infrastructure work. Different causes mean different types of outages. Here are the types of outages that could affect your home.
Blackouts
A blackout is a sudden and complete loss of power to your home. One minute you’re binging a show, the next, complete darkness. Small, localised power interruptions are often caused by severe weather, fallen trees, or a car accident that’s ended up involving a power pole. Large-scale blackouts – while less common – can majorly affect large numbers of people over a widespread area.
Brownouts
A brownout is when you’ll still have power, but it doesn’t behave as it should. Lights could flicker, or appliances might not work as they should. This happens when the electricity supply is temporarily cut down to prevent a bigger blackout from happening. Brownouts can damage appliances, so it’s best to turn off high-usage appliances like heaters, air conditioning or kettles until things stabilise.
Rolling blackout
Rolling blackouts (also known as load shedding) happen when there’s an interruption to the grid or its stability. Instead of a full-on power outage, certain suburbs suddenly experience lowered power output to help stabilise the grid and protect the overall system.
This could happen during high-demand periods, like during a heatwave when all the fans and air conditioners across a city are working overtime. In these situations, you’ll be capped at a low energy capacity for a few hours before the load shedding moves to another neighbourhood.
Planned outage
A planned outage is when distributors turn off the power supply in specific areas so they can upgrade systems or complete maintenance safely. You’ll usually get notice ahead of time for these outages.
Unplanned outage
When the grid or electricity system experiences sudden damage – from things like severe weather, car accidents, or equipment failures – it will hit the kill switch until repairs can be carried out.
It’s also worth knowing that even solar-powered homes can be affected by outages. Unless you’re fully off grid, your system will be connected to the main grid and has to follow its rules. So, even if your home self-consumes its renewable energy and has a battery backup for extra energy, your solar inverter will automatically shut down during an outage. Depending on how your battery is set up, some of your appliances (e.g. your fridge) could stay on.
How long do power outages typically last?
Power outages can be over in a few minutes, hours, days, or – in more serious situations – weeks. It all depends on the extent of the damage and how quickly your distributor can access and solve the problem.
If there’s a power outage in your area, your energy distributor could send a text to the primary account holder with any updates to the disruption and an estimated restoration time. They could also have a live outage map on their website with progress updates, so you’re not left wandering around the house in darkness.
Helpful tip
Energy distributors have to give customers notice for any planned disruptions, but when it comes to the unpredictable, there’s usually little warning.
If you want to try and stay as prepared as possible – or have someone living with you who needs power for medical or life support equipment – you can organise notifications for unplanned outages. Some distributors also have outage trackers to keep you updated and hopefully let you know when the power is expected to be back up and running.
Julia Paszka
General Manager – Utilities & Credit Cards
Why do power outages occur?
Power outages don’t have a single cause; they can happen for a wide range of reasons. Here are some of the most common reasons the lights might go out at your place.
- Severe weather or natural disasters: Extreme weather events like floods, heatwaves, high winds, and bushfires can overload the grid and damage infrastructure. For example, high winds can cause trees to fall or touch power lines.
- Unexpected technical faults: Although most distributors try to organise planned work to maintain equipment, unexpected malfunctions can happen, which means unexpected shutdowns until everything’s back in order.
- Accidents: Car collisions with power poles, construction mishaps, or animals interfering with transformers can all damage and interrupt the supply of power in your area.
- Planned works: Distributors might need to switch off the power on purpose, so upgrades, maintenance, and construction work close to underground power lines can be completed safely.
What should I do when the power goes out?
First, you should check that your home is actually experiencing an outage. Look at your switchboard and see if your neighbours still have their lights on or if streetlights are up and running.
Have an emergency kit ready in case an outage lasts longer than a few hours. This should include fresh drinking water, important phone numbers (in case you can’t use your phone), torches, and batteries.
Be safe
- If you’re bringing out candles, make sure you keep flames away from anything flammable
- If you’re using a generator, plug appliances in directly; do not connect it to your home’s wiring
- Stay at least eight metres away from fallen powerlines and don’t drive over any
Being energy safe
- Leave one light on so you know when the power returns
- Switch off or unplug sensitive electrical appliances to avoid damage from power surges
- Keep portable batteries charged where possible and switch your phone to battery saver
- Use a battery-powered radio for updates and limit your mobile phone use for updates
Food worries
- Keep the fridge and freezer doors closed – a fridge can stay cold for up to four hours, a freezer for up to 24
- If your frozen food is still solid when your power returns, it’s generally safe to refreeze
- During long outages, move perishable food like meat from the fridge to the freezer
- Note the time of your outage in case you’re eligible for compensation for spoiled food
Compare energy plans to keep your home running
Power outages really remind us of how much we rely on electricity every day. While no power plan can stop a blackout, comparing providers can help you find a better option that suits your home once the lights are all up and running again. With iSelect, you can compare online from a range of plans and providers to find your match. Head online to compare today or call our energy comparison experts at 1800 664 532.
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