Hundreds of Tasmanians will likely remain in the dark until Friday after a huge fire broke out at a power station that produces about 5 per cent of the state’s power.
The Tungatinah Power Station, located about two hours northwest of Hobart, went up in flames about 9pm on Wednesday.
About 25 fire crews battled to control the blaze into the night.
It was contained on Thursday morning, hours after the fire first broke out.
The fire had impacted about 350 customers, TasNetworks said on Thursday, with outages expected for another day as crews begin restoration.
“The fire has resulted in outages in surrounding towns, including Derwent Bridge, Tarraleah, Brady’s Lake and Bronte Park,” a statement read.
“Until investigations have been completed, we are advising our customers to be prepared for the potential of outages continuing overnight (Thursday).”
Tasmania Premier Jeremy Rockliff said restoration crews would begin work as soon as the site was declared safe.
“I thank the affected residents for their patience,” he said.
“Importantly, Tasmanians can be assured there is no risk to the state’s overall electricity supply.”
The 140-megawatt station was a “mid-size” operation, Hydro Tasmania chief executive Rachel Watson said.
She said power would still operate throughout the state.
“We are very confident that we have sufficient generation capacity in the rest of our fleet to keep the power system in Tasmania secure,” she said.
Load shedding not required
Mr Rockliff said there was no risk of power issues for the state.
“I want to assure Tasmanians there is no risk to Tasmania’s power and energy supply. We will work very closely with Hydro and TasNetworks,” he said.
“The fire is currently contained, but the damage is significant. Hundreds of households in the region are without power, and work is under way to restore power to that area. This could take some time.”
TasNetworks chief executive Renee Anderson said there had been “no impact on any of the major industrials”.
Despite the power outage for some, she said there was no need for load shedding and no extra energy would have to be imported into the state.
Ms Watson said there was no one inside the power station at the time of the fire.
“These stations are remotely operated,” she said.
“And while people obviously come and go to do maintenance, they do run independently of having people there 24/7.”
She said investigations were under way to determine the cause of the blaze.
“It’s very early days for us, we know very little about why they started or how they started or what the extent of the damage is,” she explained.
Footage from the scene shows the blaze ripping through the building, with thick black smoke wafting in the air as crews work to control the blaze.
The entire building was in pieces after the blaze was contained, its roof collapsed and the walls stripped and exposed to the elements.
Tasmania Fire Service chief Matt Lowe said the fire was “complex” and difficult to access due to damage to the building.
“This incident is quite a difficult and complex incident and there are a lot of safety issues that (fire crews) had to face,” he said.
“They were confronted with a fire that was spread fully across the building and the building was in the early stages of collapse.”
No injuries have been reported and emergency services remain on the scene.
“The extent of damage to the structure is unknown,” a Tasmania Fire Service statement read.