A Perth IGA owner has been forced to fork out thousands of dollars from his own pocket to get generators in for a planning power outage.
IGA Maddington owner Ben Heptinstall said he was left scrambling to find a solution to the Western Power planned outage last week, and has just received an email saying another is scheduled to take place next week.
IGA Maddington owner Ben Hepinstall. Credit: 9 News Perth
“It’s not just a case of shutting the doors and not opening for the day … we’d lose all our refrigerated stock and that cost would have been over $100,000,” he told 9 News Perth.
“So the cheapest option for us was to get three generators in at a cost of just over $18,000.
“There’s another outage next week, so not only did I lose power for a day last week at a cost of $18,000, they’re now planning another one next week, so again I’m going to be out of pocket another $18,000 with no help.
“I think the state government needs to hold Western Power accountable, they look after big businesses when these sorts of things happen with support, they should look after the small retailers like us and offer some sort of assistance.”
Responding to Heptinstall’s plight, Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said the state offered financial assistance to businesses and households impacted by outages,.
“Planned outages are a really important part of maintaining the system,” she said.
“Unfortunately, they’re incredibly inconvenient and can create disruption, and we apologise for that, but ultimately, we have to maintain the reliability of the system.”
Western Power’s website said it does not provide compensation for planned power outages.