The NSW Government says recovery support will be available to residents of Broken Hill and surrounding communities from next week.

Bad weather and a possible tornado knocked down seven transmission towers on October 17, leaving residents of Broken Hill and surrounding towns without power for about two days, with power outages continuing into the following week.

Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said power had now been restored to communities through back-up generators.

“The information now is that there are no customers without power in the Far West region of New South Wales,” she said.

Ms Sharpe said recovery support points would be operational from Tuesday in Broken Hill, Menindee, Wilcannia, White Cliffs and Tibooburra.

“It provides face-to-face support and resources to help residents and businesses recover,” she said.

“That’s also where food support will start to be available – both vouchers and baskets.”

Residents will be able to access mental health services, not-for-profit community groups and government representatives including Service NSW, the NSW Rebuilding Authority, Vinnies, the Red Cross, Legal Aid and the Insurance Council of Australia.

It follows NSW Premier Chris Minns’ announcement on Thursday of financial support for residents and businesses affected by power outages.

Each residential electricity account holder who lost power will be paid $200, and small and medium-sized businesses will be eligible for grants of $400.

Progress for the primary energy supply of the region

Transgrid operations manager Sam Pickering said that in addition to work on backup generators, massive rebuilding efforts were underway to install seven high-voltage transmission towers to restore primary power to the region.

“I want to be clear that we cannot underestimate the size and scope of this operation and the need to ensure the safety of the community and our workers at all times,” he said.

“That’s why there have been periodic outages since the catastrophic weather event, as our crews work in an extremely complex and challenging environment.”

He said the first temporary transmission tower had been erected, with a suite of towers connecting the region back to the grid expected to be installed “in the coming days” as well as additional generators.

The mayor expresses his disappointment

Broken Hill Mayor Tom Kennedy said he understood the community’s unease and lack of confidence.

“The community in Broken Hill is the best community in the whole world, in my opinion, and we’re often told it’s the friendliest town, but that doesn’t mean we have to be friendly right now,” he said.

“We were disappointed during this period.

“A town of 20,000 and the people in the surrounding areas shouldn’t have had to put up with this, but for the first time now I have some confidence that things are moving in the right direction.”

Ms Sharpe reiterated calls for residents to reduce their energy use during the evening peak.

“Every little bit helps and what it does is it actually means that the chance of someone losing their power overnight becomes less and less,” she said.

The tribunal that oversees energy prices in New South Wales is investigating whether electricity infrastructure company Transgrid failed to provide a reliable supply to residents in the region.

“There are a lot of questions that need to be answered and we will take them seriously,” Ms Sharpe said.

The transmission line providing permanent supply to Far West is expected to be back in service by November 6.