Northampton battles through another blackout as Western Power scrambles to identify fault

Another blackout has turned the lights off in Northampton and surrounding areas, leaving nearly 1300 homes and businesses without power on a searing summer’s day.

The outage kicked off at about 4.30am on Wednesday morning, with Western Power expecting to restore power to the Northampton line by 4pm.

A Western Power spokesperson said helicopters were out trying to locate the fault.

They said crews hoped to reenergise the Northampton line before 4pm, weather permitting.

The Bureau of Meteorology expects temperatures to reach 37C on Wednesday in Northampton.

A total fire ban is in place for the Shire of Northampton and Chapman Valley.

Wester Power crews have responded to several power failures in the past couple of weeks, with local residents at breaking point over the frequent blackouts.

More than 1400 households and businesses were left without power for more than 40 hours when the lights went out about 10.30pm on Boxing Day.

Northampton was left in the dark again just a couple of days later when another power failure hit at 1pm on December 30, caused by an “insulator fault”.

“We’re currently investigating options reconfigure the network to reduce frequency and duration of outages to the Northampton townsite,” a Western Power spokesperson said on Friday.