Fire at the Oodnadatta power station

Update: Thursday 13 February 2025

Oodnadatta's power system is in a secure operating state, and extreme heat conditions have passed. A technician from Cowell Electric will remain on site over the coming days to ensure the system continues to run smoothly.

Update: Wednesday 12 February 2025

Cowell Electric has directly advised Oodnadatta residents of a planned outage from 5:00 am to 7:00 am tomorrow morning (Thursday 12 February) to facilitate the connection of an additional back-up generator.

Residents requiring respite from the heat can access public facilities such as the swimming pool, or the health clinic during regular opening hours.

Update: Tuesday 11 February 2025

An additional back-up generator is scheduled to be connected into the network on the morning of Thursday 13 February. Power will be offline while the connection takes place. Cowell Electric will endeavour to notify residents of the timing and duration of the outage at the earliest opportunity.

Residents requiring respite from the heat can use the swimming pool, which is open to the public.

Update: Monday 10 February 2025

Residents are reminded that intermittent outages could occur in coming days while affected generators are substituted. In the event of an outage affecting homes, residents requiring respite from the heat can use the swimming pool (the pool is open today despite the school being closed).

Update: Sunday 9 February 2025

The Department for Energy and Mining has been alerted to a power outage caused by a fire at Oodnadatta’s fire station yesterday (in the afternoon of Saturday 8 February).

The quick actions of Cowell Electrics local power station operator and rapid responses from CFS and SAPOL controlled the fire and minimised the damage caused, but there has been damage to the station’s generation capacity. Power supplies to Oodnadatta were disrupted, but have been restored.

Back up generation is en route to Oodnadatta and will be connected in as soon as practical, noting that damage to the existing infrastructure could make this more difficult than usual.

A period of very hot weather is approaching, and it is likely that there will be temporary outages while restoration works take place. Work needed to clean and make safe the area affected by fire might also contribute to outages.

In anticipation of this, residents of Oodnadatta and the Dunjiba Aboriginal Community are advised to seek respite at public facilities where on-site generators will continue to provide cooling if homes are affected by outages during periods of very hot weather.

Because of these same circumstances the local school will be closed on Monday, but will open Tuesday, pending expected installation of further generation backup and actions taken to reduce electricity demand.

Return to this page for more updates as work progresses.