Is it possible for an electricity giant that rakes in almost $2 billion in revenue each year to give less than zero f*cks? As in, minus f*cks?

Well, it might sound like a theoretical impossibility, but Essential Energy – the NSW Government-owned corporation that runs the electricity network in the Far West of NSW, is certainly giving it a red hot go.

An overnight power outage that began on the stroke of midnight has just moved into its eighth hour (at the time of press) for almost 8,000 customers in and around Broken Hill.

Of course, storms happen, and occasional power outages are a part of the reality of life in the Outback. But you’d think the people responsible would be good at handling them, given they get so much practice? Right?

Wrong.

Currently, if you ring Essential Energy to get an update, a recorded message lets you know that there’s a power outage in Broken Hill.

Is there? Really? Well that explains why we rang the power company.

The recorded message then explicitly warns you that operators won’t be taking calls from people affected by the power outage. They’ll only speak to people who aren’t in the affected area.

Which begs the obvious question, why list a phone number for ‘Electricity supply interruptions’ if you won’t take phone calls from anyone whose currently got an ‘electricity supply interruption’?

The recorded message does, however, give you a website address to visit for “updates”. And by updates, Essential Energy means ‘No updates’. Instead, they provide customers with this:

You can’t make this shit up.

Under the headline, “Important Information During Bushfires (don’t push live until approved, this is palceholder (sic) content!)”, Essential Energy advises its customers looking to find out when they’ll get their power back on:

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse vitae ex id sem dapibus egestas. Pellentesque nec bibendum dui, nec egestas odio. Vivamus condimentum justo ut feugiat laoreet. Morbi euismod dolor urna, eu ullamcorper nunc elementum id. Aenean eu risus sed elit luctus aliquam eu vitae est. Integer quis pretium urna. Fusce dapibus in nisl non bibendum.”

I had hoped, for editorial reasons, that the translation would be something thoroughly embarrassing. Unfortunately, it’s just a screed about placeholder text.

“Lorem ipsum is a placeholder text often used in design and typography. The actual text doesn’t have any real meaning in Latin or any other language, as it is typically used as a filler to demonstrate the visual form of a document or a typeface without relying on meaningful content. This specific passage is adapted from a work by Cicero and is known as ‘Lorem ipsum.’”

In any event, no electricity for most of Broken Hill this morning. Or last night. And best of luck today, where the mercury is forecast to reach 38 degrees. And we’re only halfway through Spring.

Brave new world folks… although terrible service from arrogant Australian utility companies is hardly a new development.

If you’re wondering who to thank beyond Essential Energy for the information debacle, it’s BOTH major parties. It was Labor under Bob Carr that first tried to privatize electricity in NSW. Carr backed down, so did his successor Morris Iemma. Eventually, Kristina Kenneally forced it through, and then the Liberals stepped in to make it even worse five years later under Mike Baird.

Combined, the folks who we’re now entrusting to solve the ‘cost of living’ crisis have left us with…  ‘Insert ‘palceholder’ text here naming breathtakingly incompetent electricity provider’.

UPDATE: Power was restored shortly after publication of this story, just before 8am. No such luck for the Essential Energy updates page.

The post ‘Essential Updates’: Who Had The Bright Idea To Keep Outback Electricity Customers In The Dark? appeared first on New Matilda.

This post was originally published on New Matilda.