The towns of Hawker and Leigh Creek will be reconnected to the state's electricity network on Saturday, 15 February, following months of back-up generation after a destructive storm swept through South Australia's Mid and Far North last October.

This marks the end of a significant effort to reconnect communities impacted by the storm that caused damage surpassing the 2016 state-wide blackout event, with 32 transmission towers downed and widespread network disruption, including to BHP’s Olympic Dam mining operation. 

While most customers were reconnected within 24 hours, around 1,600 customers in Hawker, Leigh Creek, and Quorn were left without power due to the extensive damage to the distribution and transmission networks.  

SA Power Networks overcame significant logistical and technical challenges to set up temporary generation to provide a power supply to these communities.  

Quorn remained on backup generation for two weeks, while Hawker and Leigh Creek have continued to rely on generation as restoration efforts on ElectraNet's damaged transmission network have progressed.  

Barry Murphy, a generation specialist with SA Power Networks (affectionately known as 'Spud'), led the operation, supported by teams in Port Augusta, Elizabeth, and Metro South. 

"Deploying generation to three separate sites for an extended period presented many challenges, but our team’s collaboration was key. Over the past 3 months, staff from depots all over the state made themselves available to temporarily re-locate to Hawker and Leigh Creek to support our efforts.," said Barry. 

What happens next for the community

A planned outage will take place on Saturday, between 5am and 8am, to ensure the safety of crews working to disconnect temporary generators and re-establish the network supply. Customers have been notified and can visit our outage map to check if their property will be impacted. 

SA Power Networks Operations Manager, Chris Bennett said: "We understand the inconvenience these outages have caused, and we thank customers for their patience and support over the past few months. Our priority is to ensure a safe and efficient power restoration process.". 

"Despite the difficulties, the collaboration between our teams, the SA Government, and the local communities has been outstanding," said Chris.  

"We are proud to have been able to provide power to Hawker and the surrounding areas, and we continue to work with the government and ElectraNet to ensure the long-term security of the region's electricity supply." 

Sign up for outage updates  

We will notify affected customers if subscribed via SMS or email two weeks before a scheduled power outage. Non-subscribed customers receive cards, but there may be postal delays. If you do not already receive free SMS/email updates about your power, you can sign up for outage alerts, or call us on 13 12 61 for assistance. You need the National Meter Identifier (NMI) from your electricity bill to subscribe. 

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