Electricity outages anger businesses
SPARKS are starting to fly among East Taieri residents, including a dairy owner who has had to throw out food products, as unplanned power outages continue to plague the area.
East Taieri Dairy and Takeaways owner Crystal Cao said the power cuts had forced her to throw out food from the hot food displays, because if it did not remain at a certain temperature, it would not meet food health and safety regulations.
It was also causing her to lose customers because eftpos terminals would not work without electricity, she said.
‘‘It’s unacceptable. This never happened when I had a similar business in town.’’
ThermaDura coowner Sandra Rampe said the outages were also having a major impact on her door and window manufacturing plant in the industrial area of Mosgiel.
She said the company had experienced four unplanned power outages in the last three working days. Yesterday morning was the latest and she believed they would continue.
‘‘My husband was so frustrated this morning that he took a piece of timber and screwed it on the wall outside. It said ‘No water, no power, no production’.
‘‘Our production was on standstill. Machines and computers shut down, not only disrupting our production, but also damaging our machines and equipment.
‘‘The whole block of companies in Mosgiel around Gladstone Rd South were affected.
‘‘I don't have to mention how furious the other businesses are about this. You would expect that in a remote, Third World country, but not here.
‘‘It is embarrassing for Aurora and somebody really has to make a call to improve things — even if this is inconvenient for some Aurora managers.’’
An East Taieri resident said there had been several unplanned power cuts in the area over the past two weeks and residents were getting angry.
‘‘The last one was four and ahalf hours long.
‘‘At home, I need power for my water pump because I’m on tank supply. I also need it to light my califont [on demand gaspowered water heater], and I need it for my internet, because I use satellite internet.
‘‘When it happened the first time, I didn’t mind. But this is becoming a regular habit — it’s Third World stuff.’’
They were among many residents and business owners in the area who took to social media yesterday to complain about the continuing unplanned outages.
An Aurora Energy spokeswoman said power was restored to all customers by 1.30pm yesterday, and apologised for the inconvenience to customers affected by the series of outages.
She said they were caused by faults affecting parts of Mosgiel and the East Taieri area.
‘‘It can be difficult to track the cause of intermittent faults, but we believe we have located the cause — a damaged transformer surge arrester and a hairline fracture in an insulator. Both faults have been fixed.’’
She said Aurora had deployed extra line patrols to this section of the network and would be monitoring the situation.
❛ I don't have to mention how furious the other businesses are about this. You would expect that in a remote, Third World country, but not here ThermaDura coowner Sandra Rampe