Shops had to resort to manual practices as their cash machines stopped working and shoppers could not use their credit cards to pay. -- ST PHOTO: SHAHRIYA YAHAYA
A 15-MINUTE power failure which hit Bishan and parts of Ang Mo Kio on Thursday afternoon disrupted train services and retail businesses.
A spokesperson for SP PowerGrid said it took immediate action to 'progressively restore electricity supply' when the outage was reported at about 1.30 pm.
Supply was fully restored within 15 minutes.
The outage affected buildings and flats in the vicinity, as well as a number of MRT stations, where services were disrupted. Some commuters said the train doors could not open during the power failure.
'Preliminary findings suggest that the tripping was due to a cable fault. We are conducting further investigations into the cause of the interruption,' said the SP spokesperson.
'PowerGrid apologises for the inconvenience caused to those affected.'
Shops had to resort to manual practices as their cash machines stopped working and shoppers could not use their credit cards to pay.
Said a sales assistant of a shoe shop in Junction 8 shopping mall at Bishan: 'We had some customers in the shop when the blackout hit us. Our cash machine couldn't work so we had to write out invoices and make the customers pay in cash.'
