Did you lose power on Sunday, January 28? You could be in for a one-off payment of up to $180.
Electricity network companies Powercor, CitiPower, United Energy, Ausnet Services and Jemena will shell out $5 million to about 50,000 people who sweltered through 38-degree temperatures with no airconditioning, fans, lights or even refrigeration. Households that lost power for between three and 20 hours will get $80, and those that were in the dark for between 20 and 30 hours are entitled to $180.
The outages started about 5pm, with the temperature nudging past 38 degrees. Melbourne's south-east suburbs were the worst affected in the city, with homes in Brighton, Northcote, Chadstone, Mordialloc, Ocean Grove and Dandenong losing power for more than a day. Homes in western Victoria and the Mornington Peninsula were also plunged into darkness.
“We know how frustrating this was for many Victorians – affected customers deserve to be compensated for the inconvenience, and we made sure that happened," says state energy minister Lily D'Ambrosio.
More than 20,000 homes also lost power on February 11 thanks to a fault in a substation, and almost 7000 also lost power on Wednesday February 7.