Power cut to more than 15,000 homes in Sydney as huge grid failure and an exploding transformer bring commuter chaos as traffic lights go dark during peak hour
Power supplies were cut to traffic lights and thousands of homes in Sydney's west, causing pandemonium during peak hour.
About 1,100 homes at Majors Bay Road and Wellbank Street in Concord and North Strathfield lost power at about 4.30pm on Monday.
An Ausgrid spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia employees worked hard to repair energy supplies, which were restored at about 7pm.
The cause remains unknown, but the spokeswoman confirmed warm weather was not the issue.
Terrifying footage also showed a transformer on fire in a suburban street in Mortlake, near Concord
The cause remains unknown, but the spokeswoman confirmed warm weather was not the issue
Temperatures surged to 40C in western Sydney on Monday, while the mercury hit 35C around the CBD on the hottest November day recorded in five years.
About 14,000 homes in Parramatta, Harris Park, Rosehill and Granville were also left without electricity for about an hour at about 4.30pm on Monday.
Power was restored at 5.30pm, but the unexpected outage caused traffic lights on Church Street on the Great Western Highway to switch off.
Motorists struggled to get home amid the outages, with terrifying drone footage capturing a series of potential collisions and near misses.
Road and traffic authorities urged commuters to leave extra time when travelling home.
Motorists struggled to get home amid the outages, with terrifying drone footage capturing a series of potential collisions and near misses (pictured in Parramatta)
An Ausgrid spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that employees are working to restore energy. Pictured: Map of power outages in Concord and North Strathfield
'Traffic lights at the Great Western Hwy and Church St are blacked out due to a local power failure,' Live Traffic Sydney warned.
'A number of nearby traffic lights are blacked out as well. Take extra care and allow extra travel time.'
Terrifying footage also showed a transformer on fire in a suburban street in Mortlake, near Concord.
Endeavour Energy told Daily Mail Australia the interruption was caused by the failure of equipment at Camellia Transmission Substation.
Homes in Parramatta, Harris Park, Rosehill and Granville were also left without electricity for about an hour at about 4.30pm on Monday (stock image)
Power was restored at 5.30pm, but the unexpected outage caused traffic lights on Church Street on the Great Western Highway to switch off
'Crews are currently on site switching around the fault and will commence restoring power to affected customers over the next hour,' it said in a statement.
'Motorists are advised to avoid the area altogether if possible as traffic lights have been affected at the corner of Parramatta Road and James Ruse Drive as well as several off ramps from the M4 motorway.'
Traffic warnings were downgraded at 5.30pm.