PORT Fairy business owners are irate about frequent power outages that are costing them thousands of dollars.
Colin Cleary, co-owner of Port Fairy IGA supermarket in Sackville Street, said a power outage from 2.22am to 8.28am yesterday forced him to throw away a substantial amount of chilled and frozen goods such as ice-cream.
Mr Cleary said it was the second time in two weeks he had to throw away perishable items because of a power blackout.
A 17-hour power cut two weeks ago forced him to throw away thousands of dollars worth of perishables.
Mr Cleary said Powercor told him that outage was caused by a lightning strike.
It was followed by another the next day that lasted for two hours and did not cause significant losses.
A Powercor spokesman said yesterday morning’s outage was caused by a blown fuse on an overhead power line.
The spokesman said Powercor believed the break in supply was only from 6.38am-8.58am and affected 123 customers.
He said it was not related to the Port Fairy Folk Festival increasing the town’s power needs.
“The fuse just unfortunately gave out and was replaced,” the spokesman said.
Powercor apologised to customers for the disruption, he said.
There were options for Powercor customers who lost money because of extended outages to seek compensation, the spokesman said.
Yesterday’s problem appeared to mainly affect businesses on the western side of Sackville Street.
Roxanne Wolfe, from The Hub cafe-restaurant in Sackville Street, said yesterday’s disruption forced the business to run power cords “all over the place” to enable it to keep operating.