Administering your own at-home, six-hour-long dialysis treatment three times a week is no easy task under normal circumstances but, for the past week, kidney patient Leroy Johnson has been trying to manage it amid rolling blackouts.

The Barkindji-Malyangaapa man was one of thousands of people in Far West NSW left in the dark late last week when a freak storm rolled through and cut the power in its wake.

Described as a "possible tornado", the event knocked down seven transmission towers and has resulted in unstable power and rolling blackouts ever since.

And as Mr Johnson's neighbours and fellow community members continue to struggle to refrigerate and cook food, study for year 12 exams, and run businesses during the outages, Mr Johnson is concerned. 

The Broken Hill man, who suffers from kidney failure and is dependent on constant dialysis treatment, said it was a scary prospect knowing that he could instantly be left without power.

"I've got 20 minutes of battery in the machine itself, so when power gets cut I've got 20 minutes to reinfuse all my blood."

Dialysis treatment filters the blood of toxins and excess fluid. Without it, patients can become lethargic and unwell and in more serious cases suffer kidney failure.

With no electricity to power his machine or filter his blood, he has few options other than to call the hospital for help. 

"That's one sort of fail-safe I have," he explained.

Planned outages will continue, as periods of "load sharing" are necessary to ensure that there is enough electricity to go around in peak periods.

A week into ongoing outages, Mr Johnson was finally able to access a small generator to power his machine.

But without it, Mr Johnson said he would have to "sit there and worry" about whether he would be able to get his dialysis done for the day.

Series of unfortunate events

Following the storm, residents across the Far West have been powered by a back-up diesel generator.

But even that has failed multiple times, leaving the community frustrated and vulnerable to the impacts of having no electricity.

For Willyama High School student and school captain Poppy Whittaker, it has been a year of disruptions and challenges.

As year 12 students across the country complete their final year exams, for the students at Willyama the power outage is another blow.

In February this year, the school was closed down after the buildings were discovered to be riddled with mould caused by heat and humidity over the summer months.

This meant all students were forced to relocate to Broken Hill High School's campus for the foreseeable future.

So when the power went out, Poppy and her peers were, again, left to deal with the consequences.

"It's definitely a crazy situation, to think this is where we are now," she said.

For now, as the unreliability of the power supply continues, Poppy said it was impacting her cohort's mental health.

"Stressing isn't good because you get a bit of brain fog, you kind of lose your train of thought in an exam … it creates a lack of motivation, people get down … they don't want to do anything because they don't have [internet] access."

'We feel neglected, ignored'

Broken Hill's Argent Street, typically buzzing with business, is not its usual self.

As the blackouts continue, with no definitive answers as to when and for how long they will occur or last, cafes and restaurants, among others, are having to wait it out.

Alfresco's cafe owner John Perry was finding it difficult to navigate the challenges of unreliable power access.

"Even if it does come back on … you don't know how long you've got it for," Mr Perry said.

"There is no planning, you've just got to try and adapt to the situation."

Describing the circumstances as a "nightmare", Mr Perry said that, while you had to be flexible, it was difficult to come to terms with knowing he had lost more than $20,000 in revenue — an amount that continued to climb.

"[Friday] is one of our busiest days, and we've got no customers," he said.

"It is a strain, a big strain."

For Mr Perry's employees, it has been a waiting game — wondering whether they will have work in the coming weeks.

As for the rest of the Far West, the residents continue to grapple with the ongoing uncertainty of power supply while Transgrid and Essential Energy have asked people to prepare dinners or do washing of clothes and dishes during the day to help take pressure off the grid.

They also advise that turning off non-essential appliances like pool pumps, clothes dryers, and dishwashers will help keep power stable.

The transmission line that provides permanent supply to the Far West is expected to return to service by November 6.