Royal Adelaide Hospital hit by third blackout in two months after major interconnector failure

A major power outage has hit the state’s largest hospital for the third time in two months, in another embarrassment for the state’s health system.

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A major power blackout has hit the state’s largest hospital for the third time in two months.

In another embarrassment for the state’s under fire health system, electricity was lost at the $2.4 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital for at least seven minutes.

Power stopped at 6.50pm on Saturday night after the main interconnector linking South Australia to Victoria shut down, officials said.

Emergency generators kicked in as planned to ensure “essential areas” remained online.

Authorities could not say if patient safety was compromised but sources said a person was stuck in a lift.

The outage caused the spot price of electricity to spike briefly, jumping from $48 per MWh to $1078 per MWh, before settling lower.

It is the third power blackout to hit the hospital since September.

In the first outage surgeons had to pause for four minutes during an operation due to a blackout.

The incident was caused by the failure of a back-up power generator, which was being tested to see how the hospital would cope with a full-scale blackout.

Surgeons paused the procedure as lights and monitors went off during the tense four-minute gap. They finished the operation without problems once power was restored.

Parts of two levels of the RAH were left without power during the morning outage.

Officials said there were “no adverse patient outcomes”.

Then earlier this month a power hiccup caused a loss of power for five-to-ten seconds.

Labor called for a “thorough independent investigation” into the latest blackout.

“A power outage for the third time in a few months is extremely concerning and deserves a thorough independent investigation,” said health spokesman Chris Picton.

“Any interruption in power could impact on patients and the corporate liquidators now running the hospital should explain why this is happening and how it will be fixed.”

An SA Health spokeswoman confirmed the blackout but could not provide any further details.

A statement from the Australian Energy Market Operator said an investigation was trying to establish the cause of the interconnectorgoing down.

The interconnector was restored on Sunday.