Outback residents in far western New South Wales are being urged to conserve power to reduce the risk of rolling blackouts after transmission towers were knocked down during wild weather the Bureau of Meteorology has described as a “possible tornado”.

About 10,000 homes and businesses in Broken Hill and surrounds had their power supply cut when a wild storm swept through the region on Wednesday night.

The NSW government said a large back-up generator had since restored power to the area.

But the government said the generator was “not adequate” to meet full demand, especially during the evening peak between 5:30pm and 10:30pm ACDT.

It warned that network operator Essential Energy could “rotate” power between different areas, meaning some locals could have their power switched off for up to two hours at a time.

To reduce the likelihood of that occurring, the government urged locals to minimise their electricity use by turning off non-essential appliances — a message supported by independent local MP Roy Butler.

“Instead of using the dishwasher, maybe wash your dishes in the sink. Have a barbecue with paper plates perhaps, turn off the pool pump every second day,” he said.

“Just try and do little bits to reduce the amount of power. If you’re not in the room, turn the light off.

Further wild weather on Thursday also knocked out the power supply to parts of South Australia’s far north.

However, SA Power Networks said that as of Saturday afternoon, “fewer than 1,000 customers remain without power”, after supply was restored to Quorn on Friday night.

“It may still be a few days before we can connect generation to Hawker and Leigh Creek due to the technical complexity,” it said.

The NSW government said reliance on generator power in the far west of the state would continue while Transgrid built temporary towers to replace those damaged by the weather — a task that could take weeks.

“It’s positive news that power supplies have been restored to Broken Hill and nearby communities via a large-scale back-up generator,” NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said.

“However, there is still a lot of work to be done to replace the transmission towers and repair the electricity network.”

Extra generators to bolster supply

Mr Butler said two further load-shedding outages had occurred on Friday, affecting 950 and 1,340 properties respectively.

But he said that four additional generators were “en route to Broken Hill”.

“They’ll be plugged in at a substation,” he said.

“The idea is that we’ll island those smaller communities like Wilcannia, Menindee, White Cliffs, Tibooburra, Milparinka [and] Packsaddle and give them reliability, but also take a bit of pressure off the old turbine generator in Broken Hill.”

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Mr Butler said mining companies were having “to make some commercial decisions” about what steps they would take.

“I understand that one of them’s actually bringing in generators at a very high price to be able to operate because they want to keep their people working,” he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology has described the damage to infrastructure as consistent with the “possible presence of a tornado”.

“Australia experiences 30 to 80 tornadoes each year, but it is possible that many more tornadoes occur in remote, unpopulated parts of Australia and therefore go unreported,” a bureau spokesperson said on Friday.

In South Australia’s far north, Roxby Downs Council chief executive Roy Blight said gusts of around 130 kilometres per hour had caused a sandstorm on Thursday afternoon.

“The sky was red, and it was like being sandblasted,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide on Friday.

“I saw images of a semi-trailer around Pimba that was blown on its side, and also a vehicle that was down at Oak Dam was going through the weather and hail stones or flying debris smashed the side window.”