READER PIC STORM WEATHER 28/09/16. The storm system rolling over Port Augusta power station, looking very angry. Brace yourself Adelaide and stay safe. Picture: Craig Element. Source: Facebook

SA Power Networks spokesman Paul Roberts said the payout would be many times bigger than the response to major storms in February 2014 ($7 million) and July last year ($4 million).

Some households in the Adelaide Hills were left without power for four and a half days as SAPN battled to clear fallen trees and fix more than 350 toppled wires.

More than 155,000 households were without power for extended periods and Mr Roberts estimated about 80,000 would receive GSL payments.

“This is the worst storm we have ever experienced in terms of minutes of supply lost for customers and in terms of the amount we will need to pay in Guaranteed Service Level payments,” Mr Roberts said.

“On average each year South Australians are without power for 168 minutes. This storm alone will exceed that figure.”

Households left without power for more than 12 hours are eligible for payments of $100.

A maximum of $605 will be given to households which went without power for more than 48 hours.

However, Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis has asked the Essential Services Commission of SA to consider lifting the 48-hour cap.

Payments will be automatically sent to customers as a cheque in the mail but the process could take several months to finalise.

“Determining the level of payments requires examination and verification of outages and customers affected, when a specific customer’s power was restored and exclusion of any time delays where restoration was unable to be undertaken,” Mr Roberts said, “such as high winds preventing crews from being able to work safely, or due to restricted access.

“For example, we were unable to undertake restoration work in the Adelaide Hills for many hours as wind gusts reached up to 120km/h and the winds did not abate until around 9am.”

The December blackout is expected to have a significant long-term impact on households and businesses. Business SA chief executive Nigel McBride expected the final losses would climb into the tens of millions.

SAPN has consistently stated that it had enough staff to restore power quickly, denying union claims that a voluntary redundancy program led to delays in reconnecting power.

Communications Electrical Plumbing Union organiser Ben Jewell previously said there was no doubt the job cuts had slowed restoration.

The Essential Services Commission will look into December’s outage as part of its significant performance event reporting framework.

However, it has yet to determine if it will examine SAPN’s staffing levels or whether the distributor took too long to restore power.

Originally published as $20 million payout for blackouts