Storms and cable faults plunge thousands into darkness

A well-known business leader has criticised a power outage he claimed cost his business $6k, as he crunches the numbers to compare diesel-run generators to the $100k power bill increase he has endured.

Power outages left thousands of Sunshine Coast residents and businesses in the dark on Thursday, with Mooloolaba Fisheries general manager Paul Schenk slamming rising electricity costs and the financial impact of service interruptions.

Mr Schenk was among the 1052 Energex customers affected by an underground cable fault at the Mooloolaba substation in the afternoon.

“During the outage, we had no power for our freezers and refrigeration,” Mr Schenk said.

He said the 2pm outage forced his business, including the factory, to close for the day and required him to send employees home.

The power outage only added to Mr Schenk’s frustration, as he has already been struggling with rising electricity costs, which have significantly affected his business operations.

Paul Schenk, General Manager of Mooloolaba Fisheries. Photo: Contributed

He revealed his business power bills have surged by $100,000 compared to last year, with the closure on Thursday costing at least $6000 in lost revenue.

“It’s very concerning and it’s just not productive for business to have such an increase in costs.

“You have to pass those costs onto customers; otherwise, we would be called a charity, not a business.”

The latest hike in electricity costs was particularly steep, with his contract rate jumping from eight cents per kilowatt to 12 cents. Without signing the contract, the rate would have increased to 17 cents.

“We all need to talk more, and we need to be heard,” Mr Schenk said.

He added that running a diesel generator to power the site is now “not far off” being cheaper than the current electricity plan.

Despite efforts to upgrade some equipment to more energy-efficient models, Mr Schenk noted the high upfront costs were a significant challenge.

“It’s a bit of a minefield for all of us,” he said.

Fisheries on the Spit, Mooloolaba. Photo: Supplied

Mr Schenk revealed other business owners had reached out to compare electricity contracts and discuss rising costs.

“I had two businesses call me yesterday asking about my power,” he said.

“It’s simply not good enough.”

Energex confirmed that the fault at the Mooloolaba substation was repaired within four hours, while another underground fault at the Alexandra Headland substation affected 1100 customers for about 90 minutes.

Severe storms compounded the issue, bringing down 70 power lines and leaving 6000 customers across Gympie and the Sunshine Coast without electricity.

An Energex spokesman noted that while underground cables are typically dependable, occasional outages are inevitable.

“We’ve got underground cables that are 80 years old, and they keep running tickety-boo, but outages will happen from time to time,” the spokesman said.

The storms ultimately caused outages for 25,000 Energex customers across South East Queensland on Thursday, with Energex deploying helicopters to assist repairs in Gympie on Friday.

Originally published as Storms and cable faults plunge thousands into darkness