If you were in the dark about protecting yourself from power outages, then Friday’s unplanned blackout that left 2208 people without power would have been an issue.
It’s an important piece of advice from IT expert Livio Mazzon, who likened it to the essential insurance you have for a car in this technology dependent age. “If you’re going to rely on technology then you should budget for power supply issues and data loss,” he said on Monday.
Thanks to a back-up power supply Veritech, where Mr Mazzon works as a principal consultant, weathered the storm on Friday as one of many businesses across Beelbangera, Bilbul, Yoogali and parts of Griffith who unexpectedly lost power for a number of hours.
“We were lucky to have a back-up power supply for our central service, we had to shut down things but there were back-up systems in place,” Mr Mazzon said. “We were able to ride through - but often when this happens equipment blows up so our customers have had a few equipment failures we have had to fix today.”
Mr Mazzon said while the power outage had been a hit for theirs and other small businesses, Essential Energy had been quick to respond to the accident. An Essential Energy spokeswoman said a suspected lightening strike to network equipment had caused the power outage. “Local crew were immediately dispatched to reports of a burning power pole in McKay Avenue, Yoogali, and on arrival, identified fallen powerlines and a damaged cross arm,” she said.
