Canberra's only bourbon distillery could shut down if it does not find a permanent fix to its electricity woes.
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Baldwin Distilling Company was forced to hire a generator in January after it was revealed the Mitchell warehouse did not have enough electricity to keep equipment its bourbon-making equipment running, head distiller Anthony Baldwin said.
Since then, the distillery has been paying $2500 a week to keep the power on.
"When we signed the lease for this place last year one of the things I stupidly didn't check was the available power in Mitchell," Mr Baldwin said.
"Being an industrial area I rightly assumed it had sufficient power to look after business here. That wasn't the case. We required a bit of extra power to power our steam boiler and our only option was to hire a generator so we could start work."
Mr Baldwin said they can't afford to keep the generator going past next week.
Without the generator, bourbon production stops and the distillery faces closure.
"We've got export deals in the pipeline, we've just won a large contract with Woolworths BWS with our cans and moonshine, it's all there in front of us but it could fall off a cliff next week," Mr Baldwin said.
"No normal person would consider there wouldn't be sufficient power supply in an industrial area like Mitchell.
"[In] the two warehouses where our distillery is, we currently have as much power, or a little bit more than, a normal household and we need industrial power, which is more than double that."
Mr Baldwin said ActewAGL quoted him $150,000 to install a second point of entry into the warehouse, which would allow them to use normal mains power.
However ActewAGL's energy networks general manager Stephen Devlin disputed this figure.
"ActewAGL did not provide a costing figure of "$150,000 to install a fitting", as suggested by The Canberra Times," Mr Devlin said.
He said ActewAGL received an application to increase supply capacity to the distillery in January but the initial request was denied on safety grounds.
The electricity company gave Baldwin Distillery two more options but the application was put on hold because the distillery did not pursue it.
"ActewAGL Distribution looks forward to receiving advice from the customer as to their preferred option," Mr Devlin said.
Canberra Liberals politician Mark Parton this week questioned Chief Minister Andrew Barr on why he had not helped keep this "entrepreneurial" business open.
It is understood the Baldwins have been liaising with the chief minister's office since June.
However Mr Barr said the issues around electricity supply to the bourbon business were "complex".
"If there is a way to adequately resolve this issue in terms to the satisfaction of the regulator in terms of safety, to the electricity company and the business, that would be a great gift to everyone," Mr Barr said.
