Power outages

If power is out across your neighbourhood, you will need to contact your local energy distributor for further information. Flow Power is not your energy distributor.  

How to find your energy distributor 

You can find your distributor and their contact details on your Flow Power electricity bill under ‘Faults and Emergencies’, or by visiting the Australian Energy Regulator website.  

You’ll find all energy distributors within the National Electricity Market listed near the bottom of this page. 

 For outages only affecting your property, follow these steps to identify the issue: 

1. Check the fuse box
   Inspect your fuse box to see if the main switch is still on. A safety switch may have been triggered which can turn off your power. If the switch is off, turning it back on may restore power.
2.  Inspect for faulty appliances
   If your power continues to go out, you could have an electrical fault or faulty appliance. Turn the power off at the outleg and unplug any appliances that were in use at the time of the power outage and then try resetting the fuse box again. If you believe there is a faulty appliance, stop using it.
3. Call a licensed electrician
   If you can’t identify the fault, call a licensed electrician. Electrical faults can be dangerous so do not attempt to fix an electrical fault yourself.

Power outages can be caused by a wide range of factors, such as lightning, floods, heatwaves, bushfires, high winds, fallen trees, car accidents or technical failures. Typically, these are small and localised, but large-scale outages can occur in extreme cases.  

On rare occasions, planned or deliberate interruptions can occur because electricity generators cannot safely supply the demand for power. This is known as load shedding and can be used to stabilise the grid as a last resort by the Australian Electricity Market Operator. 

To help stabilise the grid and reduce the risk of power outages, energy users can take part in demand response, by shifting flexible operations to periods of low demand on the grid.  

For homes, this could look like running the washing machine or dryer during low demand periods, or for businesses, it could involve shifting energy intensive operations to daytime hours when solar energy fills the grid. 

Eligibile large energy users can also participate in Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) and get paid to power down for the benefit of the grid. 

There are many ways you can prepare your home or business for power outages: 

• We recommend saving your distributor’s number and website on your phone, so you have it on hand if required.  

• If you rely on life support in your household, make sure to register it with us and we’ll help put together an action plan for the unlikely event of a power outage.  

• Consider getting prepared with back-up generators, on-site solar or battery storage, which can be used to reduce reliance on grid electricity.  

If you’re a Flow Power customer, reach out to your dedicated account manager for help creating a strategy for power outages.