An investigation is set to begin into the cause of a fire at a power station in Tasmania's Central Highlands overnight.
The Tungatinah station at Tarraleah is one of 10 major stations in the state's hydro-electric scheme.
Emergency services were called to the blaze just before 9pm and reported it was contained by early this morning.
Live Moment
Authorities provided an update on the fire at Tungatinah Power Station
That's it for the press conference
Thank you for joining us.
While the press conference is over, we will continue to update this story with more information as it comes.
Tas Networks boss Renee Anderson says there has been "no impact on any of the major industrials" due to the loss of the power station.
No extra energy has had to be imported into Tasmania via Basslink because of this incident.
"These stations are remotely operated," Ms Watson says.
"And while people obviously come and go to do maintainance, they do run independently of having people there 24/7."
Hydro Tasmania says no employees or contractors were at the station and no one was injured.
The extent of damage is yet to be assessed, but Hydro says there is no risk to Tasmania's energy supply and that the system "continues to operate securely".
The Lyell Highway will be closed between Victoria Valley Road and Fourteen Mile Road.
Police say residents will be allowed to access Bradys Lake.
Tasmania Police Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Higgins urged people to stay away from the area while fire and police investigators examined the scene.
"It's important from here that you allow the investigators to go through the work they need to do, to see if we can determine what's actually happened on that site, and then as we move forward have some answers," he said.
He said road closures were expected to remain in place for 24 hours.
Preliminary cause possible later today
Tasmania Fire Service Deputy Chief Matt Lowe praised the work of crews that attended the blaze last night, describing the conditions as "difficult".
He said the TFS received a Triple Zero (000) call at 8:50pm yesterday evening, and arrived about 27 minutes later.
At the height of the fire, he said 25 crews and about 45 people were on site fighting the blaze.
"It was a difficult fire for our crews, but they did the best they could in the circumstances."
He said the response time was "excellent" given the remoteness of the power station, but crews could not rush straight in.
"Due to the significant amount of electrical infrastructure, we will not commit crews to any building where we can't confirm the power has been disconnected, so we had to wait until we had advice on that," he said.
"And then due to the collapse, it wasn't safe for crews to enter."
Mr Lowe said it was too early to determine the cause of the blaze.
"Our fire scene examiner is on the way up there at the moment, and he will work together with detectives and with police forensics to determine the cause," he said.
"Hopefully, we'll have some preliminary findings by this afternoon."
Fire causes local power outages
Power outages are affecting about 300 households in surrounding towns, including Tarraleah, Bradys Lake and Bronte Park.
TasNetworks interim CEO Renee Anderson said the company was working to restore power.
"The site is still being made safe," she said.
"We've got crews ready to deploy once they're allowed in there, and they'll be working to restore that power as soon as possible," she said.
Ms Anderson said TasNetworks did not anticipate the damage would cause long-term issues to the network, or the state's energy reliability.
"We have strong backup, and we are very confident in the security of the network going forward, and will continue working with Hydro Tasmania on the restoration effort."
Power supply 'stable'
Tungatinah station is the newer of two power stations at Tarraleah.
It's the state's fifth largest with a generating capacity of 142.2 megawatts.
At a press conference in Hobart this morning, Premier Jeremy Rockliff said damage to the power station was "significant", but assured Tasmanians the state's power supply remained stable.
"Tungatinah power station is a very important part of our Hydro network, accounting for around 5 per cent of Tasmania's power," he said.
Mr Rockliff said the government would work closely with Hydro Tasmania and Tas Networks to ensure supply remained secure.
"We will continue, of course, to assess the damage, and focus our efforts then on rebuilding what is very important infrastructure for Tasmania's hydro network and energy supply.
Hydro Tasmania CEO Rachel Watson reiterated the premier's assurances.
"So that means every customer, major industrials included, is not affected in their usage at the moment."
In response to the incident, Hydro will be using the gas-fired Tamar Valley Power Station to bolster supply.
"It's been running a bit in the last few weeks to support us through the winter period, and we expect that it will be back online by the end of the week," Ms Watson said.
"But even before it gets back, we're very confident we've got sufficient generation capacity running already in the state."
Ms Watson said the utility would work closely with Tasmania Police and Tasmania Fire Service as investigations continued.
"It's very early days for us. We know very little about why this started or how this started."
She said it was too early to determine how much it would cost to replace the power station.
"We don't really have any information yet about the extent of the damage or what it will cost to replace or repair.
"But what I can say is that Hydro Tasmania carries insurance for all of its power stations, and to the extent we need to draw on that, we will absolutely be doing so."
