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Lengkok Bahru coffeeshop sees 5 power outages in 5 days, up to 8 hours without gas & electricity on May 19
Power outage.
May 22, 2026, 06:15 PM
Image from 777 Coffeeshop
Daniel Tan recently took over a 24-hour coffeeshop in Lengkok Bahru.
He was running his chicken rice stall there prior to taking over.
The coffeeshop has eight stalls.
While Tan opened the coffeeshop in April, he has faced quite a few issues regarding power trips.
In a video he posted on May 19, Tan noted that they had no electricity, gas, and even the toilet was unable to flush.
Speaking to Mothership, Tan said the lack of gas and electricity lasted around six to eight hours, over two power trips, on May 19.
This left staff with nothing to do and vendors with no way to prepare their food.
Tan also said that some residents who came to buy food had to be turned away.
According to 8World, vendors and staff at the coffeeshop estimated that revenues fell by around 70 to 80 per cent that day.
This was not an isolated incident, as well, with three other such incidents happening in the days before that.
The problem was exacerbated by the fact that Tan does not have access to the breaker.
This means that when there is a power trip, they are unable to do anything about it, said Tan.
Instead, they have to wait for the relevant personnel to come down.
Applied for upgrade
Tan said he had applied for an upgrade of the electrical system in January. The approval was granted on Jan. 28.
Tan also showed Mothership documents stating electrical maintenance works were scheduled on May 13, but noted that even after that, the energy issue was not solved.
In response to queries by Mothership, the Tanjong Pagar Town Council (TPTC) stated that they received a report of the coffeeshop's power outage at 10:44am on Tuesday and activated a contractor to attend to the matter.
TPTC said investigations found that the power trip was caused by renovation works at the coffeeshop, which had overloaded the power capacity.
This resulted in a trip at both the Town Council’s switch room and the coffeeshop’s MCCB, they explained.
"Our contractor assisted to reset the coffeeshop’s MCCB."
TPTC said the electrical load from the coffeeshop's renovation works had exceeded the original power capacity, triggering the power trips.
The contractor subsequently helped reset the circuit breakers.
"As the coffeeshop falls under the purview of HDB's commercial division, HDB will follow up further with the owner on the matter, while the Town Council will continue to render assistance where needed."
Queenstown SMC MP Eric Chua also visited the coffeeshop and said he would be following up with "HDB colleagues, and at the same time, rally our Town Council team to continue to lend support".
