Authorities respond to widespread power, water, fuel and communication outages in regional WA

We're wrapping up our live coverage but you keep across what's happening and read the latest here:

Before we go, here is the latest information according to DFES,

• There are 8,800 homes and businesses without power across the network including 3,500 in Perth Hills, 700 in parts of the Goldfields and 2,000 in the Wheatbelt.
• Crews are working to repair the extensive damage to the network and the aim is to get power back on to most customers in the next few days. There will be some customers who remain without power for a longer duration.
• Water supply disruptions are occurring and people may experience loss of water or low water pressure. 

"The situation is dynamic and estimates may change," DFES said in a statement. "In some instances, it’s currently believed some areas should be prepared for power outages for up to seven days."

 Our Kalgoorlie reporter Giulia Bertoglio took these pictures around town over the past 24 hours showing the impact of the outages.

The press conference has wrapped up now. But earlier today, our reporter Grace Burmas visited the Wheatbelt town of Dowerin 156km north-east of Perth.

Jim Davidson runs a trading and safety business in town and says while this outage is extreme, issues like it are becoming commonplace in the Wheatbelt.

“We seem to have unexplained outages with Telstra and with Western Power on a very regular basis up here,” he said.

Locals haven't had the luxury of cooling off at the swimming pool, after the shire was forced to lock the gates due to the outages.

Temperatures in Dowerin have been high with residents having to find new ways to cool down.

“Garden hose or the shower,” Mr Davidson said.

“We’ve been up around the 40 [degree mark] for the last, over a week, ten days.”

Residents in the Goldfields region were hit by a similar week-long power outage in 2017.

Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson was asked whether he thought the government had “lost the trust” of West Australians after this week’s events.

“I think the people of the Goldfields will recognise what this was – a freak event, a supercell event that we haven’t seen before,” he said.

“Our commitment to the people of the Goldfields … is to get their power on as quickly as possible and to get their services back to them as quickly as possible.”

Residents and business owners impacted by the outage for longer than 12 hours can apply for an extended outage claim through Western Power’s website – the government has doubled the usual payment from $120 to $240.

Energy Minister Reece Whitby says they’re not intended as equal compensation for the impact of the blackouts.

“It’s an amount of money to say we understand that this was inconvenient to you, you’ve gone through some hardship,"

Mr Whitby was asked if anything will be done to help compensate businesses, some of which have reported estimated losses of thousands of dollars.

“It’s outside my portfolio area … my job right now is to make sure the power is on as quickly as possible — that’s job number one,” he said.

Minister Reece Whitby – who holds the portfolios of energy, environment, and climate action – said diversifying energy supply was the answer to building a more resilient energy grid.

However, he said the importance of building resilience went far beyond power infrastructure alone.

“What this week has taught us all is that extraordinary events can happen … and unfortunately they’re increasing and we need to plan for that,” he said.

“Not just electricity, but health and police services, providing those service to be more resilient and robust so that we meet the challenge of climate change.”

Mr Whitby said it was clear there needed to be improvements to WA’s energy grid.

“What happened to those very large transmission towers is unprecedented – to have them knocked over flat like matchsticks is pretty extraordinary,” he said.

“We need more resilience in the system.

“We’re going through a time of transition with our energy suppliers from the network, so transmission, renewable energy, batteries, all of those things will help a future network be much more resilient.”

Western Power's acting CEO Jacqui Hall said "abnormal circumstances" caused the Kalgoorlie-Boulder backup generator to trip when the storm hit.

The Premier Roger Cook earlier today said the town's backup generators were not fit-for-purpose, and were unable to handle demand after the mass outage.

When asked whether she thought the system was resilient enough, Ms Hall said: "I think it's just a different abnormal situation that has led to them behaving differently".

Ms Hall estimates it will take about eight days to repair the five transmission towers which have been damaged between Cunderdin and Merredin.

"Our aim and our objective today is to get any rural towns that still remain without supply online by the end of the day," she said.

Mr Whitby says it’s been a challenging start to the year for Western Australia with extreme heat, bushfires, thunderstorms, and blackouts all in the space of a week.

He said the damage to five large transmission towers caused by the storms has been “unprecedented”.

“The weather bureau has determined this to be a supercell thunderstorm and the damage is quite incredible,” he said.

“I don’t think we have seen this type of damage to Western Power infrastructure before in this state.

“To have a large 50 metre tower basically knocked over and crumpled over like tin foil is extraordinary and unprecedented.”

This is what those towers look like:

Mr Whitby said the Federal Government and Telstra were working to repair infrastructure for towns which were left with no telecommunications after the storm.

“Of course, critical infrastructure is getting the priority, such as health, the hospital facilities, police, and telecommunications has been prioritised.”

The Minister urged impacted residents to apply for extended outage claims with Western Power.

Anyone affected by the outages for longer than 12 consecutive hours can apply for an extended outage claim on the Western Power website.

"The extended outage payments to people both the Goldfields as well as the Perth Hills and the Wheatbelt will be doubled to $240 to assist those people with purchasing food and household items," Premier Roger Cook said earlier today.

Mr Whitby, who is also WA’s Climate Action Minister, said the increasing frequency of “extreme and very destructive” weather was a result of climate change.

“I’ve spoken with the Premier and he has asked me to put together a climate resilience package,” he said.

“This package will explore a range of solutions to ensure our electricity, infrastructure and communities can withstand the effects of climate change.”

Energy Minister Reece Whitby is speaking now. He says the power infrastructure damage is worse than Cyclone Seroja – a destructive tropical cyclone which swept through WA’s Mid West in 2021.

“Having no energy over a number of days for some people is very hard to deal with, families, people trying to cope with getting fed and cleaned, and access to services,” he said.

“In terms of Western Powers’ infrastructure – this is a bigger hit to them than Cyclone Seroja.”

Hi there, my name is Gian and along with my colleague Cason Ho, we'll be bringing you all the updates as they come through on the power blackouts in regional WA.

Energy Minister Reece Whitby and Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson will be holding a media conference shortly.