Power restored after large section of Cairns CBD goes dark

Power has been restored to a large section of the Cairns CBD, after a large section of the city went dark this morning.

A large section of the Cairns CBD has lost power, according to the Ergon Energy outage finder.

Power has been restored to a large section of the Cairns CBD.

An Ergon Energy spokeswoman said crews located a fault on an underground cable and power was restored to all customers by midday.

Businesses were thrown into chaos and office workers downed tools after a significant section of the Cairns CBD went dark at 10.15am on Thursday.

It comes as a Queensland Fire and Emergency spokeswoman confirmed crews responded to reports of multiple people stuck in a lift on a Grafton Street property at 11.40am, likely caused by the outage.

“One crew was on scene. It looks like people were stuck in a lift on a commercial premises. Crews waited on scene until a technician arrived and the people were then released,” the spokeswoman said.

Ergon Energy workers respond to an electricity outage on Grafton Street in the city CBD, while Queensland Fire and Emergency Services firefighters attended to government workers at the Cairns Commonwealth Centre who were stuck in a lift due to the power outage. Picture: Brendan Radke

The occupants were released just after 11.50am.

Premises in Aplin, Florence, Grafton, Lake, Sheridan, Shields and Spence Streets were without power for an hour and 45 minutes.

Ergon Energy advised that 336 customers were affected.

Earlier, an Ergon Energy spokeswoman said Ergon fault-finding crews were looking into the cause of the unplanned outage.

“Once they’ve pinpointed the cause, we’ll be able to provide an estimated restoration time frame,” the spokeswoman said.

Originally published as Power restored after large section of Cairns CBD goes dark