Electricity supply disrupted in parts of Ang Mo Kio, Sin Ming and Thomson; power up by 3pm

SINGAPORE — Electricity supply was disrupted in parts of Singapore on Saturday afternoon (Jan 26).

The disruption, which affected parts of Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Sin Ming and Thomson, began at 1.30pm, according to electricity supplier SP Group.

Electricity supply was progressively restored from 1.46 pm, and was fully restored at 2.58pm, said the firm in an update.   

SP Group said that its “preliminary investigation found that the incident was related to a fire at a substation at Bright Hill”, adding that they are investigating the cause of the fire.

Mrs Juliana Loh, who lives in BrightHill Drive told TODAY: “I was at home, surfing the internet when the power went out. So I went out and found out that my neighbours were experiencing the same thing.”

The retiree who is in her 60s said that the power went off at about 1:30pm and only came back on at about 2:25pm.

“Everybody was pretty calm, though when we came out we saw a fire engine, and there were also people stuck in the lift,” she added. “We tried to call the town council but some of us couldn’t get through.”

A resident staying at Fulton Avenue who only wanted to be known as Mdm Thoh said: “We were all home and suddenly we saw the lights flicker and all went out. At first we thought it was a power trip (affecting her) house. Then when we checked we realised it was a blackout.”

The 40-year-old housewife, who has four kids said the outage was “very disruptive”.

“We were supposed to bring one of our kids for enrichment class nearby but we couldn’t because there would have been no electricity there either.” While the power came on in about an hour, “it was too late for us to resume our Saturday activities (bringing my kid to enrichment class),” she added.

One Facebook user, Ms Allison Lillian Chua, commented: “BrightHill Drive has been out for 40mins... Can hear ambulances, people stuck in lift,” she wrote.

Other affected residents in Bishan and Upper Thomson also reported the incident on Facebook.

The last major power outage in Singapore occurred back in September last year, when multiple parts of Singapore were hit by blackouts in the early morning. The power outages affected more than 146,000 customers residing in Boon Lay, Clementi, Jurong, Aljunied, Geylang, Mountbatten, Kembangan, Bedok, East Coast, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Thomson, Admiralty, Sembawang and Woodlands, among other areas.