“The electrical [sic] keeps jumping. None of us can do anything now… Our tenants are very angry, nobody can sell, all the food is wasted, please help,” Daniel Tan, owner of 777 Coffeeshop at near Redhill MRT station, said in a Facebook video post.
Tan said the blackout occurred at about 10 a.m. on May 19 and that he had immediately contacted multiple organizations about the matter. However, he claimed help only arrived about three to four hours later, according to an interview with local news platform 8world.
He alleged that another blackout had occurred the previous Sunday.
“The electrical boxes at the coffee shop are all locked up, and I do not have the key. During the blackout, there was nothing I can do aside from wait for the relevant authorities to arrive,” he explained.
“With the two blackouts, the tenants were out of business for about eight hours.”
Daniel Tan films his coffee shop during a power blackout. Video via Facebook/777 Coffeeshop
777 Coffeeshop operates 24 hours a day and has eight stalls operates by separate businesses. Chen, one of the tenants who runs the mixed rice stall, told 8world that the electricity supply was so unstable that customers felt like they were “striking lottery” whenever they came to dine there.
Chen said he was in a bad mood that day and estimated that he had lost about 70% of his revenue.
“The staff are just sitting around with nothing to do, and with the lack of electricity, the food in the fridge were all spoilt, and we had to throw it away,” he said.
“If this keeps happening, we might have to close down soon.”
Delayed electricity upgrade
Speaking to AsiaOne, owner Tan said he signed a three-year lease to take over the coffee shop in January. Renovation works began in March, and the coffee shop opened in April.
The 46-year-old had applied for an increase in electrical load capacity in January. He claimed the application was approved on Jan. 28, according to Mothership.
However, Tan alleged that the upgrading works had been ongoing for four months.
“We were told that it should have been finished on May 13. But when they had finished installing it, they told us that they had to install another item.”
Due to the electricity issues, Tan said he had not been collecting electricity and rental fees from tenants since April.
“I can’t take it anymore,” he said. “Firstly, you do not give me electricity. Secondly, you lock up the electrical boxes, so when a blackout happens, there is nothing I can do, and all I can do is wait for someone to come down.”
Local authorities’ investigations found that the power trip was caused by renovation works at the coffee shop, which had overloaded the power capacity. This resulted in a power trip at both the town council’s switch room and the coffee shop’s molded case circuit breaker.
In social media posts on Thursday, Member of Parliament Eric Chua, a representative of Queenstown Single Member Constituency, said on Facebook he had visited the coffee shop and spoken to Tan and the staff about the issue.
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Daniel Tan (L) and Eric Chua, Member of Parliament. Photo via Facebook/777 Coffeeshop |
“Will be following up with Housing and Development Board colleagues, and at the same time, rally our town council team to continue to lend support,” he wrote in the caption. The Housing and Development Board is Singapore’s public housing management authority.
An spokesperson of the board told AsiaOne that power outages may occur when electrical demand from equipment exceeds the existing power supply provision.
“In order to avoid overloading this, the number of equipment in use should be moderated,” the spokesperson said.
The board also confirmed that it had approved an application from the coffee shop’s operator on Feb. 11 and arranged for a contractor to carry out the upgrade, which is now 90% completed.
“The remaining works at the common switch room will require a temporary electrical shutdown of power supply lasting a few hours.”
An electrical shutdown has been scheduled for May 28 to facilitate completion and testing of the remaining works at the switch room.
