{"id":457344,"date":"2026-02-04T07:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457344\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:20:14","slug":"more-than-8000-sa-properties-left-without-power-from-ongoing-dust-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457344\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 8,000 SA properties left without power from ongoing dust pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

SA Power Networks (SAPN) says more outages across the state are likely this summer due to low rainfall and dust pollution affecting infrastructure.<\/p>\n

It comes after more than 8,000 properties in South Australia lost power this morning, forcing some businesses to shut their doors and bin their stock.<\/p>\n

At least 5,500 properties on the Yorke Peninsula’s southern end lost power, stretching from Minlaton to Marion Bay on the very tip.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Businesses like Minlaton Bakery were forced to dump stock because of the power outage. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

As of 3:30pm ACDT, power was restored to most of the region, but at least 300 properties in Greater Adelaide are still offline, plus another 530 in Victor Harbor.<\/p>\n

Outages costing businesses money<\/p>\n

Minlaton Bakery owner Lisa Martin said she lost at least $5,000 in trade, not including wages and dumped stock.<\/p>\n

“We should have opened at 7:30am, and even though the power is back on, the choice to open was out of our control when we didn’t know what time the power was coming back,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lisa Martin says she lost at least $5,000 in trade, not including wages and dumped stock. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“Today we’ve closed and we won’t get that trade back.”<\/p>\n

Some 40 kilometres away in Edithburgh, Location Caf\u00e9 owner Terri Thiel also said she was unable to open and lost the entire day’s revenue.<\/p>\n

However, she said community safety was a greater concern, as the flashovers caused by insulator pollution have been known to cause spot fires at the base of power poles.<\/p>\n

Ms Thiel herself lost her home during a 2019 power network fault<\/a>, which damaged 11 properties in Edithburgh.<\/p>\n

“I lost everything in that. I know what happens,” Ms Thiel said.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Co-owners of the Location Cafe in Edithburgh, Kara Johnson, Terri Thiel and Sophie Gray, are frustrated by the ongoing power-outages. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“So, if the infrastructure isn’t right, you’re going to have to spend the money and change it, or we’re going to have another fire.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to fix it.”<\/p>\n

‘Degradation a long-term problem’<\/p>\n

SAPN external affairs manager Cecilia Schutz said insulator pollution along transmission lines was to blame \u2014 the same cause of the March 2025 outage that affected 20,000 properties on the Yorke Peninsula.<\/a><\/p>\n

“While washing has helped remove it in the immediate term, both this summer and last summer, it’s not helped the problem of degradation,” Ms Schutz said.<\/p>\n

“We’re likely to see more insulator-related outages this summer, until we get those washing rains of over five millimetres over 24 hours.”\"A<\/p>\n

SA Power Networks external affairs manager, Cecilia Schutz. (ABC News: Marco Catalano)<\/p>\n

Ms Schutz said some insulators will eventually be replaced, but the challenge will be identifying the source of the damage.<\/p>\n

“They won’t all happen within the short term, and we’ll probably be doing this over the course of several years,” she said.<\/p>\n

“At the moment, the focus is on narrowing down where the hotspots are so we can direct our investment in the areas that need replacement urgently, versus those that can wait a little bit longer.”<\/p>\n

Last month, SAPN established a dust pollution taskforce<\/a>, which is now carrying out an inspection program across the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SA Power Networks (SAPN) says more outages across the state are likely this summer due to low rainfall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,235558,173275,235555,75,235562,235561,235556,235557,42587,38664,231830,128,1124,235563,235560,235559,25159],"class_list":["post-457344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blackouts-south-australia","tag-cecilia-schutz","tag-edithburgh","tag-environment","tag-flashovers","tag-is-the-power-back-on-yorke-peninsula","tag-minlaton","tag-minlaton-bakery","tag-power-outage","tag-power-outages","tag-sa-power-networks","tag-science","tag-south-australia","tag-what-are-flashovers","tag-what-is-causing-south-australias-blackouts","tag-what-is-insulator-pollution","tag-yorke-peninsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}