In the dark: Bendigo Stadium was temporarily evacuated due the power outage before last night’s Bendigo Braves match. Picture: Jim Aldersey
NEARLY 10,000 Bendigo Powercor customers lost power last night.
The mass power outage started about 6.30pm and lasted about an hour and a half with homes and businesses affected throughout Bendigo.
Traffic was thrown into chaos as multiple sets of traffic lights lost electricity supply, and city diners ate meals by candlelight.
Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with talk of the power outages with some people enquiring what fast food restaurants had been affected and how long delays were expected.
The Powercor website listed reported outages in Bendigo, Flora Hill, Iron Bark, North Bendigo, Quarry Hill, West Bendigo and Spring Gully.
A Powercor spokesman said the incident was due to power from a transmission centre not being received properly.
He said the company that supplied Powercor had reported a problem at a terminal centre and had worked quickly to rectify the situation.
“Everybody was back on by 8pm,” he said.
The spokesman described the power loss as a “very large” power outage.
“It’s affecting about 9700 customers,” he said.
Police were called to help divert traffic while they waited for the traffic lights to come back on with a police spokeswoman saying they had received multiple phone calls from concerned motorists.
