South Australia suffers state-wide power failure as storm hits

[SYDNEY] The entire state of South Australia has lost electricity after severe winds and storms lashed the region, according to SA Power Networks.

Australia's fourth-largest state by area is currently without power and there is "no upstream supply from the transmission network," the distributor said in a Twitter posting.

The national Bureau of Meteorology earlier issued a severe weather warning, noting the risks from a vigorous cold front moving across the state.

It predicted winds averaging up to 75 kilometres per hour, with gusts of up to 140 kilometers an hour.

There "may be outages for an extended period," State Premier Jay Weatherill said in a separate posting on Twitter.

SA Power Networks is 51 per cent owned by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd and Power Assets Holdings, while the remaining 49 per cent is owned by Spark Infrastructure Group, according to the distributor's website.

BLOOMBERG