Numerous business outlets in Brunei-Muara, Belait and Tutong districts incurred significant losses due to a power outage that struck at 11.30am yesterday.
Traffic lights malfunctioned, leading to traffic congestion and confusion. Police personnel had to be dispatched to major traffic junctions to manage the flow during rush hours.
Meanwhile, the Department of Electrical Services said yesterday by 9pm last night, most of the affected areas had received the power supply. Jeffrey Wong, a photo studio owner in Gadong, said he had to halt operation due to the power outage.
The same was true for banks, restaurant and supermarkets in the commercial area.
Among the business that chose to remain open was Motul Brunei. According to its management, the company “wasn’t affected much” by the outage.
The spokesperson said, “Being in the retail means we have to approach outages like this positively. It is important to embrace a proactive mindset to manage, tackle and minimise the impact on business during blackouts.”
Due to the outage, several schools offered parents the option to pick up their children early. Two private schools directed their students to their assembly points. A mother of three, whose daughter is sitting for the Primary School Assessment (PSR), said the outage had affected her daughter sitting for the exam.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Development also announced that the supply of clean water was affected by the power outage, adding that water supplies to affected areas in Brunei-Muara, Belait and Tutong districts had been reduced until electricity was restored.
Unified National Networks (UNN) said there was a brief interruption in services for Progresif and imagine but they were fully restored by 5pm yesterday. UNN also said it had been prepared for such a scenario as “majority of our exchanges are running on generators or batteries.”
It added that they expected service interruption in areas such as Tanjong Maya, Sinaut, Kiudang, Kupang and Belait and had dispatched teams to the areas “to mitigate the outages”. – Azlan Othman & James Kon
