The Sunday, December 14 storm saw the highest number of customers impacted by power disruptions since the 2010 hail storm event, according to energy distributor Western Power.
A Western Power spokesperson said the recent storm left 115,000 customers without electricity while the 2010 storm affected 160,000.
The Bureau of Meteorology recorded wind gusts reaching 100km/h at 4pm on December 14.
“The damaging and destructive winds associated with the storm front have thrown debris, including tree branches, into the network damaging equipment and bringing down powerlines,” the Western Power spokesperson said.
The storm damage was described by Western Power as significant and widespread, impacting the WA main electricity network across the Perth metropolitan area, the Mid West and the Wheatbelt.
Beckenham, Queens Park, Cannington and Bayswater were among the suburbs most heavily affected.
The power outages impacted traffic signals, with Main Roads reporting blacked out lights at the Tonkin Highway and Hale Road intersection.
The traffic lights at both the Wharf Street-Sevenoaks Street intersection and the Wharf Street-Albany Highway intersection were also blacked out at about 7pm.
As outages continued into the following day, Western Power said restoration times across the Perth metropolitan area varied, with crews working to bring customers back online as quickly as possible.
“Our priority during the storm was responding to reported hazards to ensure the safety of the community and our crews,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re aiming to restore power to the majority of customers today.”
By 5.30pm on December 15, electricity had been restored to about 90 per cent of affected customers.
By Tuesday morning, more than 104,000 homes had power.
However, Western Power said about 11,000 customers across the network, most of them in the mid-west, remained without power.
Customers who experienced outages lasting longer than 12 consecutive hours are encouraged to apply for Western Power’s extended outage payment.
