South Australia’s power outages are leaving people on edge and out of pocket, including Emma Godfrey John Standley and Helen Cooper

FED up. Over it. Sick of the blame game. South Australians have had enough of blackouts and power cuts, which are costing businesses and creating risks.

• MAIN REPORT: ‘Dramatic’ changes to stop blackouts
• SMACKDOWN: PM calls Weatherill ‘lazy, hypocritical’ on power
• RESPONSE How the State Government plans to fix energy crisis
• HIT LIST: Is your area on the blackout hit list?
• ANALYSIS: No easy fix to SA’s power crisis

THE discomfort, cost and risks created by an unreliable electricity network are causing worry and frustration for power consumers across South Australia.

EMMA GODFREY, MYLOR

THREE major and three minor blackouts in six months have left the Mylor resident on edge.

The longest outage — between Christmas and New Year — lasted 4½ days, while “mini” outages last an hour.

“We can’t put anything in the fridge long-term, we’re nervous about buying bulk meat,” she said.

“We lose our water … we can’t have a shower because we run on tanks. It really makes life difficult.”

The outages have been a problem since last August, and residents are forced to dash to the nearest petrol station, fighting for the last bags of ice, and packs of bottled water.

“We’ve had a couple of community meetings and the biggest discussion we’ve had is about the lack of communication,” Ms Godfrey, 30, said.

At one of the meetings, Ms Godfrey said a representative for SA Power Network attributed the continuing outages to the “combination of renewables, lack of baseload, unreliability” and freak weather events.

“We’re not the only state that has extreme weather in this country,” she said.

Emma Godfrey by her electric fence she fears won’t keep her dogs in during a power failure.

During storms, Ms Godfrey’s dog Tara “freaks out” — which leaves her owner worried her beloved pet will escape and be killed by a car, when the power to the property’s electric fence is cut.

Ms Godfrey’s house has solar power which they are unable to tap into during outages.

She said people who were at a high risk of power outages — such as residents in the Hills — should be offered a subsidy to buy a generator, to have basic amenities including water.

“We are in the process of obtaining a generator but a lot of contractors upped their cost during the major blackout at the end of the year.

“In this sort of weather, if someone gets bitten by a spider, bitten by a snake, no power so they can’t put on an ice pack because it may have melted.

“Most people now would just go straight into the city, which is just frustrating. (Power) is a basic need.”

JOHN STANDLEY, HAHNDORF FISH AND CHIPS

WHEN it’s too hot to cook, Hills locals flock to Hahndorf Fish and Chips.

But turning customers away during the dinner rush has become a common occurrence for owner John Standley, who has lost business due to five blackouts in six months.

The power outages leave him unable to take phone orders, or cook, because he cannot operate without a fan. “This one (on Wednesday) was about an hour but the one before was somewhere in the vicinity of a day,” he said.

Mr Standley is forced to keep ice in deep freezers which he layers in between his fish stock.

“Some stuff you have to throw out,” he said.

“You lose all your trade. As soon as it (the power) goes, you can’t cook.”

Mr Standley has become used to the lack of reliability.

“You hear about Third World countries having power cuts — what are we?”

Helen and Kristie Cooper say it is too early to think about buying a generator.

HELEN AND KRISTIE COOPER, COOPER’S CAFE & BISTRO, HAHNDORF

THE first year operating a new business is often the hardest for owners.

In the first two months these cafe owners have faced the additional burden of losing hundreds of dollars due to two power outages.

Kristie said that until the business was in a good financial position, it was too early to think about buying a generator.

When the power went out in December, the business lost $200 in stock from their fridges, and at 6pm on Wednesday, Ms Cooper had to watch 15 diners walk out because they were unable to be serve them.

“We can still cook because everything is on gas but it’s the airconditioning and the fridges,” she said.

“They were really understanding — it’s a good community but it’s just devastating for us.

The cafe had 30 people booked for a function last night but feared further load-shedding would ruin the birthday dinner.

Originally published as South Australia’s power outages are leaving people on edge and out of pocket, including Emma Godfrey John Standley and Helen Cooper