SEVERE thunderstorm activity on Wednesday this week has impacted parts of the network in the Perth Hills and parts of the north metropolitan area affecting power supply to around 8300 homes and businesses, down from an earlier peak of 12,200.

Areas affected included Mt Helena, Stoneville, Mundaring, Gidgegannup, Chidlow and surrounds.

Due to the damage and large number of faults, some customers may be without power for an extended period of time.

Damaging and destructive wind threw debris, including tree branches, into the network damaging equipment and bringing down powerlines.

As of Thursday morning, there were still 90 hazards for crews to attend, with reports of more than 150 wires down in the Perth Hills area, and about 15 wires down in the Muchea, Bindoon area.

“Our network operations team is working to isolate damaged parts of the network and back feed where possible to restore power where it is safe to do so,” a Western Power spokesperson said.

“Given the high number of hazards, our crews are responding to risks and making safe before they undertake repairs and restore power. Additional crews are being deployed this morning to support this work.

“Current restoration times are estimated based on similar past storm events and will be updated as our crews assess damage and repairs required, and start restoration works.”

Western Power estimated the current restoration would be 8pm on Thursday, January 20.

“As crews patrol, additional damage may be found which could impact restoration times,” the spokesperson said.

“We understand the inconvenience outages have on the community and are communicating with affected customers by SMS.

“We would like to remind everyone that if you see damage to the network, please stay eight metres clear and make the safe call to Western Power on 13 13 51.”

Stay up to date by visiting the Western Power outages page.