The 5 September wind storm cut power to 62,256 Endeavour Energy customers, and fire-ban settings made restoration manual

Menangle Park’s electricity comes over Endeavour Energy’s poles and wires, and what Endeavour published over the weekend of 5–6 September 2026 is a dated record of how long an outage on its network can run when a storm lands on a fire-ban day. Endeavour says gale-force winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour cut power to 62,256 customers across its network at the peak, and that because Greater Sydney was under Total Fire Ban conditions it had switched off its automatic restoration systems as a safety precaution — so crews had to inspect and patrol powerlines before supply could be safely restored, and some customers were still off on the Monday. Endeavour named Macarthur among the areas where it expected about 3,000 customers to stay without power on the Sunday night. None of the eight updates breaks the figures down below regional level, and Endeavour’s outage map shows current outages, not past ones. They do not say whether any Menangle Park address lost power.

What Endeavour said, hour by hour

Endeavour’s updates are dated and timed, and the numbers below are its own.

• Saturday 5 September, 5pm. Around 50,000 customers without power and more than 250 fault sites, with Greater Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains the worst hit. All planned maintenance for that day and the next cancelled. Endeavour said its network was set to avoid the risk of sparking bushfires under the Total Fire Ban, which meant crews had to patrol lines after repair before restoring them.
• Saturday, 7:30pm. Power unlikely to be restored to most affected customers that evening. Endeavour said its automatic network restoration systems had been temporarily disabled under the fire-ban conditions.
• Sunday 6 September, 7am. 62,256 customers affected in all and more than 250 fault sites; 42,864 restored overnight and 19,392 still off, with outages remaining across parts of the Hawkesbury, Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Planned maintenance postponed except for a small number of critical jobs, and storm response centres activated.
• Sunday, 1pm. 75 per cent of affected customers restored and 10,415 still off, with crews from Canberra’s Evoenergy assisting. Endeavour said some customers might remain without power until the Monday.
• Sunday, 4:45pm. About 90 per cent expected back by 10pm; about 3,000 customers expected to stay off overnight, “primarily in Penrith, Parramatta, Macarthur, Liverpool, The Hills, Hawkesbury, Blacktown, Wollongong, Shoalhaven”, with an SMS to those it held a mobile number for. 356 faults still to repair.
• Monday 7 September, 10am. 2,103 customers still off and 296 open incidents, more than 180 of them single premises; around 60,000 restored since the Saturday afternoon. The heaviest damage was at Mt Tomah, Bilpin and Upper Colo.
• Monday, 4pm. 769 customers still off in the update itself. Endeavour’s newsroom index summarises the same update as 890; the figure on the update and on the live incident page is 769.
• Tuesday 8 September, 4:30pm. 102 customers still off, with storm response centres open into the Wednesday.

Endeavour’s live incident page for the event carries the same eight updates under the heading “Severe wind storm – 62,256 customers impacted at peak”.

What it means at your address

Three things follow, all of them from Endeavour’s own pages.

A fire-ban day makes an outage longer. Endeavour said that as a safety precaution under Total Fire Ban conditions its automatic network restoration systems had been “temporarily disabled”, so crews had to inspect and patrol powerlines before supply could be safely restored. This is Endeavour’s standing practice, not a one-off. Its fact sheet for total fire ban days, linked from its bushfire-season page, says it activates Bushfire Defence Settings across parts of the network, that “Automatic re-energisation of powerlines is disabled to prevent sparking that could ignite a fire”, and that crews inspect a tripped line before turning it back on. The sheet lists the effect on customers as more outages and longer ones: “it can take more time to restore power than usual”. Endeavour’s outage page says an unplanned outage can come from high winds, lightning, storms, bushfires, car accidents, trees and branches falling onto powerlines, or equipment failure. Every one of the eight updates points to its outage map for estimated restoration times. Endeavour’s contact page says it does not monitor or accept reports submitted through third-party apps, websites or social media, and that a report lodged outside its approved channels may not reach it and will not be actioned — so a fault goes through its own online forms or 131 003. Read on 20 September 2026, the outage report form carried the same maintenance notice as the life-support form, so 131 003 is the working way in.

Life-support equipment has to be registered beforehand. In its first update on the Saturday, Endeavour said it had advised life-support customers to act on their emergency backup plans. That advice only reaches a household Endeavour knows about. Registration is on Endeavour’s life support registration form or on 131 003, and a medical confirmation form signed by your doctor finalises it. Read on 20 September 2026, the registration form carried a notice that it was under maintenance and its functions were unavailable, so 131 003 is the way in until that clears. It is on the health and emergency and moving-in guides.

A generator is a hazard of its own. Each update repeats Endeavour’s two rules: run a portable generator outside and away from open windows, and never connect one to a switchboard unless a licensed electrician has installed an isolation switch, which Endeavour says is “to avoid sending electricity back up powerlines and making isolated parts of the network dangerous for workers and the broader community”. Its broader storm-day rules are unchanged — treat every fallen or low-hanging line as live, stay at least eight metres from it, and report it on 131 003, or 000 where there is an immediate threat to life or property.

Who to call in a storm, and what each emergency number is for, is in floods, fire and storms.