Tropical Cyclone Alfred Update - 6 March

Hoax SMS

• There’s a fake/hoax SMS doing the rounds saying “someone’s neighbour” knows someone in Energex who told them the power will be cut ahead of the cyclone hitting. THIS IS NOT TRUE! Energex WILL NOT be turning power off before the cyclone makes landfall.
• The community can always head to Energex’s Facebook page or trusted news sources for correct information. Read the latest on scams on our website.

Our crews

• We have more than 1,000 staff ready to hit the ground and repair cyclone damage and hundreds more Ergon staff and equipment staged and ready to make their way to south east Queensland once the threat passes. Energex crews are still attending to everyday outages, but this will cease and our staff will take cover when it becomes too dangerous to be out there.
• Once the cyclone passes, crews will begin making network damage safe, assess the damage to determine what staff and equipment is required and then begin making repairs. This is a methodical process and at times can be time-consuming to ensure the safety of the community and our staff.
• All planned maintenance work has been postponed.

Current outages

• Current outages can always been found by visiting Energex Emergency Outages. This is updated approximately every 15 minutes.

Solar

• Switch solar off to prevent damaged solar systems feeding energy back into a damaged house or the street network.
• Turn off the system at the meter box and then turn off the inverter that’s usually on the wall of your home or in your garage. Your inverter will generally have instructions on the shutdown process.
• More information is on our website.

Generator safety

• Plenty of generators have been sold in the past week to people who have never owned one before.
• Only use a generator in a well-ventilated area and never indoors to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Unless you’ve had a licensed electrician install a special changeover switch in your property, never plug it directly into your house because it can feed electricity back into fallen powerlines/cables in the street and create an electrocution hazard for the community and our crews.
• Only use safe and undamaged extension cords plugged into your generator and treat generated power with the same safety respect of power within your home.
• More information is on our website.