POWER was cut to nearly 900 properties for more than an hour in central Wagga on Thursday after a council-operated digger hit overhead powerlines on Forsyth Street.
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The outage, which occurred just before 11am, affected 890 homes and businesses in the area, including properties on Kincaid and Gurwood streets.
Power was restored to most premises by noon, with all affected homes and businesses back online by 1.20pm.
Staff at Artisan Baker on Morgan Street were left unable to serve coffees or hot food during the outage and were forced to turn away eight customers during the hour power was out at their business.
"We weren't able to make any coffees and our pastry chef Kim had stuff in the oven - that kind of compromised the baking process," shop assistant Meegan Farley said.
"We couldn't sell any hot pies ... we had to turn a lot of people away for hot food."
Supply was isolated to the area after Essential Energy detected the fault on its network, with crews quickly deployed to restore power as quickly as possible.
"Crews from Wagga depot responded immediately and discovered heavy machinery had come into contact with overhead powerlines in Forsyth Street," Essential Energy southern regional manager Steven Ilitch said.
"The safety of the site was secured and crews worked throughout the morning to carry out necessary repairs."
A Wagga City Council spokesman said an investigation was under way into what caused the power outage.
"Council commends the way staff responded to the incident in ensuring the safety of the public and the worksite," he said.
"Council takes any workplace incident very seriously, with an investigation of this incident currently under way."
Council workers have been working at the western end of Forsyth Street, where Thursday's incident took place, to reseal the road surface since January 12.
