Burst main in Melbourne causes outage. Photo: Shutterstock Power has been disrupted across central Melbourne after a burst water main flooded a zone substation in the city’s central business district, triggering widespread outages affecting thousands of homes and businesses.
Flood in Melbourne. Photo: ShutterstockLily D'Ambrosio, Minister for Energy & Resources, Climate Action, and the State Electricity Commission has today, May 25, 2025, confirmed the situation, saying the flooding caused operational damage at the substation and led to a peak of around 10,000 customers without power.
D'Ambrosio said that number has already been reduced to about 5,000 as electricity providers reroute supply through alternative networks.
Energy distributor CitiPower has been working to restore services where possible, switching affected customers onto alternative feeds in order to minimize disruption while crews assess the site.
Authorities say outages are expected to continue reducing gradually as switching operations progress, but full restoration will only be possible once conditions at the flooded substation are deemed safe for repair teams to enter.
Officials stressed that safety remains the priority, with crews unable to access critical infrastructure until water levels are fully controlled and the area is declared safe.
Residents and businesses are being encouraged to monitor official updates and check live outage information through distribution networks.