14-05-2025
York Peninsula's 24-hour blackout cost businesses more than $1m
Yorke Peninsula businesses lost $1.06 million during a widespread 24-hour blackout in March, according to fresh research.
Regional Development Australia (RDA) surveyed affected traders who reported a combined lost revenue of $566,000 due to payment systems going offline, while stock losses reached up to $264,000.
Of the 70 respondents, just one reported being covered for outages in their insurance policy.
Thirty-five were not, and nine were still awaiting decisions from their provider.
The March 14 outage saw more than 20,000 properties go dark because of dust pollution and extended dry conditions across South Australia, according to energy operator ElectraNet.
RDA Yorke and Mid North chief executive Daniel Willson said many businesses were "caught out" by the lack of insurance coverage for blackouts and encouraged owners to shift policies if necessary.
"Retail trade businesses suffered, those that have perishable stock," Mr Willson said.
"They've got some fairly stringent food safety requirements to observe," he said.
"When they can't rely on their fridges and freezers to keep running … they have to cut their losses to avoid impacting the health of consumers.
"We did have quite a few residences and households get in touch because they were frustrated that they hadn't had better coverage and service.
"There was some pretty concerning stuff — families who had to drive around in cars to keep babies in air conditioning, quite a few people who had temperature-sensitive medication who had to drive back to Adelaide to replace their medication."
Mr Willson said a full report will be released in the coming weeks.
So far, SA Power Networks, ElectraNet, and the state government have indicated compensation will not be offered to businesses.
South Australians can claim $100 a year for an outage lasting more than 20 hours, but it only applies to supply issues and not transmission faults, which caused the March blackout.
Independent MP for Narungga, Fraser Ellis, said he would lobby the government to expand the Small Claims Scheme to include outages.
"I haven't got a yes or no, but I will keep trucking away at it.
"Recently the government extended [the Small Claims Scheme] to voltage variations, so they appreciate the need for it, but in this case, it's the same outcome with just a slightly different cause."
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the government would give Mr Ellis' proposal "due consideration and consider [its] implications".
Mr Koutsantonis previously said that SA Power Networks' equipment was not at fault.
Yorke Peninsula residents reported several rolling, localised blackouts in the days leading up to the major outage.
In the aftermath, ElectraNet said it proactively monitored power equipment for dust accumulation and blamed low rainfall across South Australia, which otherwise would have washed away excess build-up.
On Tuesday, SA Power Networks spokesperson Cecilia Schulz told ABC Radio Adelaide that helicopter and ground patrols had begun monitoring 55,000km of power lines to detect faults leading up to the next bushfire season.
Ms Schulz said the March outage was not caused by insufficient patrolling.
"It is the sheer expanse of the problem over the Yorke Peninsula, the number of poles and conductors that do have insulator pollution, and the ability of our crews to get to all of them and wash them," Ms Schulz said.
"We've had to go through this process of identifying the areas of the network that are causing the problems and manually washing them, but it hasn't been possible to do that for the whole peninsula."
