Businesses count cost after school holiday power outage disrupts trade
By Sonia Isaacs
BUSINESSES across Maleny were left reeling after a sudden power outage last week forced widespread closures.
Frustrated owners said the financial losses on a busy Friday trade in the school holidays were unacceptable, with calls for better communication and stronger contingency planning from energy provider Energex.
The blackout struck at 8:15am on Friday, September 26, cutting power to more than 4,500 homes and businesses.
Adrian Anderson, owner of Maple Street café Frank, said the outage was both disruptive and costly.
“We just had no idea what the scope of the outage was,” Mr Anderson said. “You’re paying your full team by the hour and not trading. Without any actual clear information, we just had to close.
“As an operator, it’s not great – you’ve run a loss for that day, but your staff also lost most of their wages for that day as well.”
He said the lack of updates compounded the problem.
“The only information you can get from the Energex outage locator app is ‘next update 10:30’, and we’re at eight o’clock going, what will the nature of that update be? It’d be handy if they would just give you something – an estimate between two and eight hours, just something other than nothing.”
President of Maleny Commerce, Spencer Shaw, said the disruption went well beyond lost takings.
“There’s obviously the safety concerns with a community losing its power in this day and age where people are reliant on the internet for most forms of communication,” Mr Shaw said. “You’ve lost your phone, you’ve lost your ability to transact with customers, and customers have lost their ability to buy things. So it’s a pretty big impost for a few hours to be going on like that.”
While crews restored electricity to most customers by 10:19am, the outage hit at peak morning trading hours, disrupting cafés, supermarkets and service providers during one of the busiest periods of the season.
Coffee shops, hospitality venues and grocery stores – many of which trade most heavily in the morning – were among the hardest hit. Mr Shaw said Energex needed to explain the length of the outage.
“It would be nice to have an explanation as to why there aren’t backups that can get power back on a lot quicker than that,” he said.
Energex said the outage was caused by a fault in substation switching equipment. A spokesperson said crews responded immediately by rerouting power from other sections of the network before faulty equipment was replaced.
“Our next updates are generally an estimated restoration time, but secondary issues could occur down the line,” the spokesperson said. “We’re considering ways to provide more frequent and accurate updates during outages.”
The company is also upgrading the local substation to improve reliability.
Norman Scott, owner of Maleny Food Co, said the outage highlighted just how vulnerable local businesses are.
With fridges and freezers full, he feared losing “tens of thousands of dollars of stock” if power wasn’t quickly restored.
“If you lose your cold room or whatever, and it’s out for too long, you’ve got a lot of product that might have to go in the bin,” he said.
The uncertainty made planning difficult. Mr Scott contacted a generator company as a precaution but said the key frustration was lack of clear communication.
“Comms is probably one of the hardest things when there is a power outage,” he said, urging Energex in future to provide clear updates on what went wrong, how it will be fixed, and when businesses can expect power back.
To address concerns, Energex is enhancing its outage updates online, aiming for greater accuracy and frequency. Customers are encouraged to check the website or call dedicated lines for real-time information as the company works to improve transparency during future incidents.
For outage information or to report an outage, customers can call Energex’s contact centre on 131 253 or the outage line on 13 62 62.