Western Power maintains it will pay compensation where it is found to be negligent buts says blackouts caused by pole top fires were beyond its control.

It says an equipment failure was to blame for the outage which affected 2500 homes and businesses in some Perth western suburbs last week.

The outage lasted from 3am to 7am in most instances, with some remaining without power until midday.

The Woodlands bakery received publicity after throwing out more than $1000 worth of spoiled food for the third time this year when power supplies were cut to its premises, in what shopping centres tenants claim are regular occurring outages.

The Bakers Delight franchisee management were pleased at least they were being compensated for last week’s spoilage but was unhappy at the losses caused by all the other blackouts.

The bakery management said a blackout three weeks ago which was five hours long destroyed more food than last week’s outage.

“They might have admitted liability now but that doesn’t help me for all the other times,” shop management was reported as saying.

In addition to having difficulties in meeting peak power demand during heat waves Western Power’s wooden pole tops are responsible for dozens of pole tops fires when they short circuit and burst into flames. The utility says the fires are usually caused by environmental conditions which are out of its control.