Keep the fridge and freezer doors shut, discard refrigerated perishables that have been unrefrigerated for more than 4 hours, and log the outage, because a Victorian venue past 18 hours off supply in a year is owed A$130.
Skai Solutions builds phone agents for Australian and New Zealand venues, so we see what an outage does to a booking diary as well as to a cool room. This page covers the stock decision, the money your distributor may owe you, and four fixes ordered by what they cost.
Three separate bills arrive and most venues only count the first one.
The stock is the obvious loss, and it is the one you can bound. The NSW Food Authority states that perishable foods should be disposed of if unrefrigerated for more than four hours, and that a freezer will generally not defrost for at least 24 hours if the door has been kept shut. So a four hour outage with a disciplined kitchen is a fridge loss, not a freezer loss. An eight hour outage with the walk in opened twice an hour is both.
The trade is larger and nobody writes it down. A Friday service lost is a Friday service lost, and unlike the stock there is no insurance line for it unless you specifically carry business interruption cover. Our restaurant insurance page has what the policies cost and what the standard ones leave out.
The bookings are the quiet third bill. The phone system goes down with everything else, the diary for the next fortnight is on a dead tablet, and every person who rings during the outage reaches a dead line and books somewhere else. That one compounds, because it costs you next week as well as tonight.
Outages split into two kinds and they have completely different rights attached.
A planned interruption is maintenance, and your distributor has to warn you. Under the Electricity Distribution Code of Practice a Victorian distributor must notify customers in writing at least four business days before a planned interruption. This is enforced rather than aspirational: the Essential Services Commission accepted a court enforceable undertaking in March 2024 after 49 customers in one Melbourne suburb, including a registered life support customer, were simply not told. If you did not get four business days of written notice, say so when you call.
An unplanned interruption is weather, a fault or a third party hitting a pole. You get no notice, but you do get counted, and the counting is where the money is. Which brings us to the part of this page that pays for itself.
Victorian electricity distribution customers are owed a guaranteed service level payment once outages pass set thresholds in a year, and the amounts are published by the Essential Services Commission. These have applied since 1 July 2021.
| Trigger, per year | Payment |
|---|---|
| More than 18 hours total off supply | A$130 |
| More than 30 hours total off supply | A$190 |
| More than 60 hours total off supply | A$380 |
| More than 8 sustained outages | A$130 |
| More than 12 sustained outages | A$190 |
| More than 20 sustained outages | A$380 |
| More than 24 momentary outages | A$40 |
| More than 36 momentary outages | A$50 |
| Major event day, more than 12 hours | A$90 |
| Late or missed appointment | A$35 electricity, A$50 gas |
Read the frequency column again, because that is the one that catches hospitality. A venue on a tired suburban feeder does not usually lose 18 hours in a year. It loses twenty minutes, nine separate times, and nine sustained outages is already past the eight outage threshold. Most operators never notice they crossed it because each individual event was trivial.
One honest limit, and we are declaring it rather than glossing it: the Commission's page sets out the scheme for distribution customers and does not spell out small business eligibility in terms. So keep your own outage log with dates and durations, then ask your distributor which of these you qualify for. Outside Victoria the scheme is different again, run by each state's regulator, and the same question is still worth asking.
Keep the doors shut. That single instruction decides most of this, and it is the one that gets broken in the first ten minutes while everybody checks whether the fridge is still cold.
The state regulator guidance quoted above is written for households, so treat it as the floor rather than as your compliance plan. Your food safety program is the document that governs you, and it should already name the person who makes the discard call.
Then you are closed for the night, and the job changes from saving the service to not losing the fortnight. Ring the distributor and get the fault number and the estimated restoration time, because both go in your log and both support a claim later. Put the outage on your social channels and your voicemail if the phone still works. Then deal with tomorrow's bookings before you deal with tonight's stock, because the stock is already lost and the bookings are not yet.
And log it. Nine small outages a year is a payment and a conversation with your distributor about the feeder. Nine small outages that nobody wrote down is just a feeling that the power here is terrible.
Your phone is the first thing to die and the last thing anybody thinks about. A modern venue's handset runs over the internet, the modem runs on mains power, and both stop in the same second the lights do. Every call during the outage, and there will be more than usual because people are checking whether you are open, hits nothing at all.
Skai Solutions answers in the cloud, so the calls keep being answered and the bookings keep being taken whatever is happening to the power at your address. If your phone mostly carries supplier calls, a basic message taking plan is the right buy and it is not us. If it carries bookings, read what an AI receptionist for a restaurant does and weigh it against a Friday you cannot rebook. Setup takes five days.
A hot water failure forces the same trade or close decision without the refrigeration clock. Can a restaurant stay open with no hot water has the hand washing and sanitising outcomes you have to hold to keep serving.
When the power is on and the fridge still will not hold temperature, the food safety decision is the same but the money is not, because there is no distributor payment to claim. See what to do when a commercial fridge stops cooling, including the six causes in order of likelihood and why the gauge on the door is not evidence.
Payments fail on their own as well as with the power, and the drill is different because the kitchen is still running. See EFTPOS machine not working for the four causes in order, the backup reader that turns it into a five minute problem, and the script for the phone.
How long can a restaurant fridge stay off before the food is unsafe?
The NSW Food Authority advises that perishable foods such as dairy, meat, poultry and prepared foods should be disposed of if they have been unrefrigerated for more than four hours. A freezer will generally hold for at least 24 hours if the door is kept shut.
Can you refreeze food that thawed during a power outage?
No. State food regulator guidance is that thawed food should not be refrozen, and should instead be kept cold and consumed within 24 hours.
Do I get compensation for a power outage in Victoria?
Victorian distribution customers are owed guaranteed service level payments once thresholds are passed, set by the Essential Services Commission. More than 18 hours off supply in a year or more than 8 sustained outages each attract A$130, rising to A$380 at 60 hours or 20 outages.
How much notice must an electricity distributor give before a planned outage?
Under the Electricity Distribution Code of Practice a Victorian distributor must notify customers in writing at least four business days before a planned interruption. The Essential Services Commission has enforced this, accepting a court enforceable undertaking in March 2024 after 49 customers were not notified.
Should a restaurant stay open during a power outage?
Only if you can keep food at safe temperatures, take payment and light the space safely. Once refrigeration has been off for hours the stock decision comes first, and trading on without a working probe is the expensive version of this night.
What should go in a restaurant power outage plan?
Who rings the distributor, who logs the time power failed and returned, who makes the discard call against the temperature readings, who handles payments if terminals are offline, and who covers the phone. The log is also what supports a guaranteed service level claim later.