A spokesman for the power station’s owning company APA Group stated that there was a staged process to restore the full capacity of the Diamantina Power Station. The process was well advanced. 

“Power supply has now been returned to all the residential and industrial users in the region,” the spokesman said.

The outage occurred at about 9.20am on Wednesday, affecting local residential houses, businesses, government services, and mines. 

The lightning prompted generation protection systems to shut down the generation. 

“We have liaised closely with Ergon Energy and directly affected industrial stakeholders through the course of the day to ensure they received clear and accurate information,” the spokesman said. 

“We thank them and their affected customers and employees for their patience and understanding while extensive recovery operations took place.

“There is no indication at this stage of damage to power generation assets that may cause further disruptions to supply.” 

An Ergon Energy spokesman said between 8500 to 10,000 customers were affected by the outages. 

The storm on Wednesday morning caused no damage to poles or power lines, he said.