My aunt on the Sunshine Coast has regular powercuts, I have been told sometimes one a week.

Can anyone over in Australia verify this, or have you got worse problems in your area?

I am taking a generator in my container, not because of this issue, but because of the excellent price I can get it for. Its powerful enough to run the aircon too

Phil.

Phil,
What's your aunts address - I'll go check her out

There have been loads recently, I had three (or more) in one week. These usually are related to storms so there's not much can be done about it - more people lost their power again last night. One a week would be a bit high as an avaergae over the year. One a week during the summer is a distinct possibility.

I think it must vary depending on area or something. We have been in this area for 13 months now, and have had three power cuts, one lasted about 3 hours, one for about 2 hours and the latest one was for 30 seconds, although others not too far from our area were out for 24 hours.

I agree that a generator would be useful just in case, just imagine being without the use of a computer !!!

During our 2 years in Sydney, we may have had 3 or 4 power cuts, but only short ones 30-60 mins at a time.

We've lived Bayside now for 16 months, have only been without power once which was caused by a storm 3 weeks ago. Power went out at 4.30pm, came back at 1.30am. Half of Brisbane lost power in that storm I think . Last night we lost power for about 30 secs during a storm, thats not what I would call a powercut though.

Where we lived before I think I had about 5 power cuts (all from storms) in the last 12 years.

There are leaflets out that tell you what to do in the event of a severe storm or cyclone & loss of power eg, have candles & torch on hand, a battery operated radio etc. Useful if you are a pom & havent been brought up with storms etc, its really just commonsense .

Hi Phil,

We live in Indooroopilly and had a powercut after a bad storm that lasted about 26 hours - not nice at all. The weather this summer has not been typical - lots of storms and now an extreme heat wave.It is putting the electricity grid under a lot of strain.

Tip: Keep lots of candles and a couple of torches in the house. If the power goes off and doesn't come on within a couple of hours - nip down to the petrol station, buy a few bags of ice, stick the ice and as much of your persishables/frozen food in your esky's (ice boxes). It helps to own an ice box of course. Saved us from throwing out our food - as the freezer defrosted completely.

Life without the TV was a struggle for the kids though

AndyH

I think life with a power cut once or twice a week has become 'the norm' with some people who live in Perth. We went through a spate of them a few months ago which is irratating, not had one for a few weeks but will expect more through the winter.

We lost power, for the first time, for three hours last night - between 9 pm and midnight - and boy was it uncomfortable! No fans and no aircon - and the kids awake cus of the thunder.

We can't have it all good! This was bought on by the 41 degrees temperatures yesterday. It was a bit cooler today, but looking outside now I can see the odd streak of lightening.

Steve

In Perth they actually told the public to not use their air conditioners during their last heatwave because the infrastructure can't handle the load.

This is what happens when you let loony greenies dictate energy policy.

Tried and tested: keep the freezer as full as possible at all times (bread or bags of ice) then if you have a power cut wrap as many blankets and quilts around the freezer as you can as soon as possible. It used to work in a Turkish summer (40 deg) with regular power cuts of several hours per DAY. Power cuts were a way of life there.

Lesley

If you're getting regular power cuts, this surely begs the question:

Australia = 3rd world country?

Wasn't NZ having some similiar issues last year?

No:
regular power cuts = 1st world,
centrally planned power cuts = 2nd world,
irregular power cuts = 3rd world.

If you're referring to the 'power crisis' (lack of rain/low hydro lake levels) that never happened (result of which was a succesful campaign to reduce demand by 10%) then no, we didnt. The lights stayed on

Havn't had any here in Melb. Seems Bris and Perth suffer them the worst?