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147,000 customers in 19 areas across the island affected in blackout; power supply restored within 38 minutes

SINGAPORE — A massive blackout hit several estates across the island in the early hours of Tuesday (Sept 18), affecting some 147,000 households and businesses.

Regarding the blackout on Sept 18, 2018, the Energy Market Authority said that the electricity supply to several areas was disrupted at 1.18am and was fully restored some 38 minutes later at 1.56am.

Regarding the blackout on Sept 18, 2018, the Energy Market Authority said that the electricity supply to several areas was disrupted at 1.18am and was fully restored some 38 minutes later at 1.56am.

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SINGAPORE — A massive blackout hit several estates across the island in the early hours of Tuesday (Sept 18), affecting some 147,000 households and businesses.

Power was restored within 38 minutes, and the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and utility provider SP Group are investigating the cause of the outage.

Preliminary findings indicate that the disruption, which occurred at 1.18am, was due to a partial loss of supply from two power generation units, SP Group said. 

The areas affected by the blackout were Boon Lay, Chua Chu Kang, Clementi, Jurong, Pandan Loop, Aljunied, Geylang, Tanjong Rhu, Mountbatten, Kembangan, Bedok, East Coast, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Thomson, Mandai, Admiralty, Sembawang and Woodlands.

In a news release, the EMA said that electricity supply was fully restored at 1.56am.

“The EMA takes a serious view of disruptions to Singapore’s electricity supply. We will review the outcome of our investigation before deciding on the actions to take,” it said.

It added that it "will work with the industry" to put in place measures to minimise the risk of such an incident happening again.

SP Group said that 146,797 residential and commercial customers were affected by the blackout.

Several online users took to the Facebook page of SP Group to complain about the outage. A number of people also expressed frustration at not getting a response when they called the company's line. 

Mr Jerry Chiu wrote: "Your 24hr service line is not working. I just bought milk and ice-cream today, will you pay for the loss?" 

Another user Federick Chong asked: "Was your hotline also affected by the power trip? I called more than 20 times but couldn't even get a ringing tone." 

However, many others were grateful that power supply was restored within the hour. 

Mr Muhammad Ridzuan Kamil said: "Other countries have it worse and maybe on a daily basis, so just relax and let the engineers do their job and... appreciate their hard work. Remember they sacrificed their time even at this hour for us."

In an update on Tuesday morning, the SP Group said: "Our officers were immediately deployed to the affected areas and our priority was to restore supply as safely and quickly as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank the public for their patience."

This is the second major power outage in three months that has happened here. Earlier in June, more than 3,000 people were affected by a power outage in the Central Business District which lasted for 34 minutes. 

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