By Jamie Salter
An Emerald business owner is calling for action after suffering significant costs due to ongoing power outages.
Owner of Emerald’s Bam Bam Italian restaurant Paul Douglas has experienced power outages on numerous occasions, which pushed him to buy a $25,000 generator last year.
“Over four and a half years, last year was the worst year for us because we had two outages that lasted up to a week,“ he said.
“The last time the power went out we had to hire cool rooms and it creates a lot of work for us business owners.
“We deal with perishable products and there’s a lot of wastage, so we bought the generator to power our entire site.“
Mr Douglas said the generator meant he could continue trading even in extreme weather conditions.
“It means people who don’t have power can come here and eat some food and charge their electronics,“ he said.
“It will take a while for it to be worth the investment but it helps us sleep easy knowing the generator will come on.
“There’s all this talk about putting power lines underground and I think our area is a prime location for this sort of initiative.“
Distribution network providers like AusNet are responsible for the process to move power lines underground.
“It is a complex process and adds a significant cost to Victorian energy bills, which can be up to ten times that of overhead lines,“ an AusNet spokesperson said.
They said safety was the company’s priority.
“We have an extensive maintenance and vegetation management program and each year invest tens of millions on vegetation management programs for our distribution network so that outages caused by fallen branches is minimised.“
