General News
23 January, 2026
Hundreds impacted by outages
RESIDENTS across the district were impacted by power outages following the recent bushfires, including the Skipton/Streatham fires.
Powercor activated its emergence response plan on Thursday, January 8 in response to the catastrophic fire danger conditions experienced earlier this month.
Of the 270 power poles replaced across the state due to the fires in Natimuk, Harcourt, Cobram, Meridith, the Otways and Skipton, 100 poles were replaced in the Skipton area as part of extensive rebuilds of the power network.
A Powercor spokesperson said the fire conditions resulted in the network operating in a sensitive mode to reduce the risks of faults sparking fires.
“These devices keep communities safe but increase the likelihood of power outages occurring during these extreme conditions,” the spokesperson said.
“In many cases, crews needed to patrol power lines to make sure they are safe before power could be restored.
“For many affected premises, this meant restoration times were longer than usual.
“As the cool change moved across the state, crews worked throughout the night to patrol lines, repair damaged infrastructure and restore power.
“In the 24 hours to 10.30am Saturday, January 10, Powercor crews restored power to over 119,000 customers.”
In addition to working to restore power to fire-affected communities and surveying damage through aerial drones, emergency response vehicles also visited fire-affected townships – including Skipton.
“Our team offered advice to help people reconnect power to their properties, offered chargers for phones and other devices and poured lots of cups of coffee,” the Powercor spokesperson said.
“Significant progress was made across the weekend to restore power to fire-affected communities.
“Powercor has announced that it will waive reconnection fees for properties affected by these bushfires.”
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