BENDIGO'S Cafe Cortille is bearing the brunt of several power outages in Lyttleton Terrace, saying they have missed out on two days of trade because of it.
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Manager Jayson Tayeh says two recent power outages, caused by switch faults, saw the cafe lose money and customers.
"Last week it went out for three hours, over the main time for the day, and on Friday it happened again," he said.
"We lost almost three quarters of a day of busy trade, because we didn't want to play the waiting game in case it lasted three hours again. We just shut up shop and by the time we'd packed everything up, it was back on."
Yesterday's power outage affected 42 customers, including several other businesses in Lyttleton Terrace.
Mr Teyah said Powercor had offered no reimbursement for the lost trade.
"It's disappointing but under government regulation they're not liable," he said.
"We'll be contacting our insurance company because this has affected our livelihood as a business.
"We lost money and might have lost customers in the long term because while we were shut, other places were open."
Following the frequent outages, Mr Teyah said he would be investigating whether there was sufficient power on the Lyttleton Terrace grid.
"We will be asking Powercor to confirm whether our grid is getting enough electricity to account for all the businesses on the street and ensure power is available to everyone at our busy times," he said.
Bendigo Wholefoods said it had also experienced two power outages in just as many weeks, but had been able to continue trade and avoid stock loss.
Powercor spokesman Lyall Johnson said yesterday's outage was the result of an equipment failure.
"It was basically a routine fault at the zone substation and they blow for a various number of reasons," he said.
"We did get to it pretty quickly and our crews were able to ascertain what the damage was and do tests for future use."