Assessment of Network Outage Event on 7 March 2026 - Power and Water Corporation

The Commission has published an assessment under clause 5.4.4 of the Electricity Industry Performance Code for the purpose of verifying that a network outage event in the Katherine region on 7 March 2026 was outside of Power and Water Corporation’s control, and therefore able to be excluded from its network performance reporting and guaranteed service level payments.

On 7 March 2026 extreme flooding associated with Tropical Low 31U significantly impacted the Katherine electricity network. In the days preceding the event, the Katherine region experienced sustained and intense rainfall, resulting in widespread flooding across low-lying areas, including Katherine township, Katherine East, Katherine South and Cossack.

Emergency response arrangements were activated. The flooding led to extensive inundation of electricity network infrastructure and caused prolonged interruptions to electricity supply for many customers between 7 to 11 March 2026.

Power and Water Corporation notified the Commission and submitted a report in accordance with the requirements of the Electricity Industry Performance Code. The report proposed to exclude the events commencing on 7 March 2026 from adjusted category performance reporting and guaranteed service level payments.

The Commission has verified the network outage event was due to a natural event and is a statistical outlier and was therefore outside the control of Power and Water Corporation. As such, the Commission considers the event an excluded event for the purpose of the Electricity Industry Performance Code.