In short: 

The Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party (CLP) government will redirect $60 million budgeted for underground power in Darwin's northern suburbs.

The announcement comes six years after Cyclone Marcus left almost 29,000 homes without electricity in Darwin.

What's next?

The government says it will use the money to fund election commitments, which includes the construction of new prisons.

Jon Graham still remembers the six long nights he spent without power during Darwin's 2018 wet season.

"Your sheets are just drenched in sweat, it's ugly," he said.

The power outage occurred following Cyclone Marcus, a category two system that hit Darwin in early 2018 — the strongest to rip through the NT capital since Cyclone Tracy devastated it in 1974.

Marcus brought down power lines across Darwin, where in all but a few suburbs the electrical infrastructure was above ground.

"It was OK [without power] for the first day, when it was still quite cool and cloudy, but then the next day, when there was still no power, the weather disappeared, and it was getting steamy and stinking hot," Mr Graham said.

"The lack of fans and no air con just means, especially at night-time, trying to sleep is really, really hard.

"There was five of us in the house and we were all suffering."

Overall, almost 29,000 homes were left without power following the cyclone.

Five minutes from Mr Graham's house in Jingili, Coconut Grove resident David Taylor was in the same predicament.

"You could say it was fine by candlelight for a couple of nights but after six, seven, eight nights it starts to really wear thin," Mr Taylor said.

"It was hot as Hades, it really was bad and very humid after the cyclone."

A drawn-out saga 

Powerlines in Darwin were first transferred underground during Labor's time in power during the 2000s, with the suburbs of Nightcliff, Rapid Creek and Millner completed.

The Country Liberal Party subsequently discontinued the rollout into other suburbs after it won the 2012 territory election.

But following Cyclone Marcus' impact on Darwin's power network in 2018, Labor – who by then had returned to government – recommitted to the program.

It undergrounded power at eight schools and had budgeted $60 million over the next three years to complete the suburbs of Nakara, Wagaman and Alawa.

On Tuesday, CLP Treasurer Bill Yan announced the $60 million would now be re-prioritised.

"We've put on hold the $60 million to underground some of the [high voltage] power in the northern suburbs," he said.

"This was only going to do a small amount … and it actually hadn't been scoped.

"The ability to do much with that $60 million was not there."

Mr Yan said the money would be used to fund CLP election commitments, which includes the construction of new prisons.

As it stands, 13 Darwin suburbs do not have underground power, including Coconut Grove, which Mr Taylor said was meant to receive it more than 17 years ago.

"This was something that was supposed to happen before 2007," he said.

"We were gazetted as one of the next streets or areas to be done and then it got kiboshed."