Rolling blackouts across Darwin continued on Thursday night following a problem with gas supply to the Channel island Power Station, but authorities expect the power supply will gradually return to normal.

The NT Government issued a statement at about 8pm on Thursday night that said: “Eni has advised that gas flow from Blacktip has been restored and it is hoped that power will gradually return to normal across the Darwin and Katherine regions later tonight.

“This means it is business as usual from tomorrow and there will be no closures of schools or public service buildings.

“Public buses will run as usual tomorrow.

“At this stage, rolling outages are expected to run for a few more hours, with outages expected to last no longer than approximately one hour at a time in any one location.”

A widespread blackout hit parts of Palmerston and Casuarina on Thursday afternoon.

Rolling blackouts affected large parts of the Top End throughout the afternoon and evening. During the gas shortage generators at the Channel Island Power Station were run on both diesel and residual gas in the pipeline.

The Minister for Essential Services Willem Westra van Holthe said the scheduled stoppages were necessary to stretch fuel resources as far as possible and most customers were not affected for more than an hour.

“This approach meant minimal disruption to customers despite great uncertainty about when eni would be able to restore gas flow from the Blacktip Well. It was prudent to manage the response to the loss of gas in a manner that sustained generation capacity as long as possible,” he said.

He also thanked Territorians for their cooperation in dealing with the disruption to electricity supply, and Santos and Conoco Phillips for “securing additional gas supplies as part of our response to manage this failure of the eni well.”

Schools across Darwin and Katherine will be open on Friday and public servants will be working as usual.

POWER OUTAGES ON THURSDAY EVENING

The following suburbs and areas are expected to experience power outages at around 9pm:

- Nightcliff

- Bagot Road

- Rapid Creek

- Humpty Doo shops

- Howard Springs

- Coolalinga shops

- Stuart Park

- Hidden Valley

- Berrimah

- Harvey Norman area

- Farrar

- Zuccoli

- Johnston

- Mitchell Creek

The following suburbs and areas are expected to experience power outages at around 10pm:

- Pinelands

- Yarrawonga

- Ludmilla

- Coconut Grove

- Berrimah

- Stuart Hwy

- Vanderlin Dr

- Robertson Barracks

- Shoal Bay

- Gunn

- The Chase

- Farrar Medical Centre

- Moil

- Wagaman

- Yarrawonga

No further outages are expected following the 10pm shutdown to the suburbs listed above.