A Sydney pub came close to closing on its busiest night of the year after Ausgrid advised power would be cut for a planned network upgrade at 9pm on the night of St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Newtown’s Sydney Park Hotel was looking at a loss of around $25,000 to cancel bookings, Irish dancers and bands as well as the forfeiture of promotion and marketing costs, not to mention the loss of trade.
Owner Ray Reilly said the power outage would have forced them to get everyone out by 8:30 to close, on a Saturday night, right as the evening was getting started.
Reilly said that between skyrocketing power bills and the loss in income, the outage was a kick in the guts.
“We pay $1000 a week for power and now we can’t even use it on St Paddy’s Day,” he said to The Telegraph.
Despite requests from the publican to move the date of the upgrade, Ausgrid refused, until a journalist intervened and the story became public.
Ausgrid then told SPH licensee Will Middlehurst the date had been changed, to between 9pm and 5am on the actual St Patrick’s Day, Tuesday, 17 March.
“We’ve built this day up over the last 10 years,” Reilly said to The Telegraph.
“It’s one of our biggest days of the year, without any doubt.”
This planned outage is the second in the space of one month, reportedly to support the area’s new community and businesses.
