By Brendan Rees
It may be the biggest day on the AFL calendar but a power company nearly spoilt the party with a planned power cut in Cranbourne South.
Dozens of fuming residents were gobsmacked after receiving letters in the mail from United Energy saying works would take place on Grand Final day from 8am to 4.30pm on Saturday 28 September.
“We’ve never ever had power off on a Saturday before in our life,” resident Peter Langdon said.
“I got my power bill that was $1,150 and then they give you a power outage on Grand final day.”
In the letter to residents it said “we understand this may cause an inconvenience.”
“If you require to use electricity during this time, it is your responsibility to arrange connection of a generator by a generator provider,” the letter stated.
Mr Langdon said he couldn’t fathom why there would be a power outage planned over the celebratory long-weekend.
He said the problem was calling the energy company and being put through to someone overseas.
“Somebody rang up and said what’s going on you can’t cut the power off…and they’re just sitting saying ‘what’s Grand Final?’ They’ve got no idea,” he said.
“Nearly everybody works during the week; just do it on a normal week day.
“Who makes the decisions it makes you wonder,” he said.
Mr Langdon, who is a big Collingwood supporter, said he usually held parties at his home on the big day, hosting up to 100 people.
A United Energy spokesperson said a decision had been made to reschedule the planned work and were informing customers directly.
