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No counting to three for Energy Australia

Or that’s what we hope anyway. They counted to two today [1]:

Power has been restored to the 50,000 homes and businesses in Sydney’s CBD and the eastern suburbs which fell into darkness after two major cable’s failed this morning.

Around 10.30 am (AMEDT) this morning the lights went out again in the northern part of the CBD including areas such as Surry Hills, as well as pockets of the Eastern suburbs.

Around fifty sets of traffic lights were also affected, causing problems on major roads.
[..]
Energy Australia say around fifty thousand homes were affected when two major cable’s failed.

The section of the city from Town Hall to Circular Quay are affected including George and Pitt Streets.

EnergyAustralia spokeswoman Kylie Yates says that it was not the same cable which failed last Monday, throwing the city into chaos, but a second one.

According to a 2GB news bulletin this afternoon, the failure occurred while a substation was being worked on, and was caused by some issue within that substation. I can only imagine the sinking feeling which must have been felt by the people working on that substation at the time.

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees isn’t happy [2], but perhaps he should nip down to his local newsagent and buy a ticket in tonight’s lottery:

“I want to get to the bottom of this – it’s not good enough,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“I was told the other day that the chances of this happening again were one in a million.

On the bright side for Mr. Rees, if he wins the lottery tonight, he can flee the ailing ship New South Wales and make room for Carmel Tebbutt [3], making some other punters happy:

New South Wales could soon have a female premier, if the latest betting odds are anything to go by.

NSW Deputy Premier Carmel Carmel Tebbutt has shot up the ranks, with Centrebet placing her as the $2.00 favourite to lead the Labor Party to the next election.

At the very least, he would be able to make somebody happy.

Samuel