Energex says Cyclone Alfred had hammered large parts of the region and left hundreds of powerlines down. Further, Energex stated there would be no quick fix. Crews faced the huge task of identifying the faults along almost every part of the network and then fixing them.
With hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across southern Queensland and northern New South Wales without power, questions are inevitably turning to the strength of the electricity system.
The short answer is we don't know. Australia no longer does official stocktakes of its overall position. This was called the national energy security assessment. Neil Greet from Engineers Australia sad "The last one was done in 2011. Now, that's pretty piss poor. Security is much more than just electricity generation. So we've sort of faffed around."
Its unlikely that there will any great changes to the network. Australia will continue to face challenges keeping the lights on.