A major power outage in Calgary is into its fourth day and many downtown business owners are feeling the pressure as their establishments have been closed for the duration.

At least 1,000 businesses in the downtown core have been affected by the outage that was caused by an underground explosion and fire on Saturday.

Douglas Hernandez, who owns Jalapeno’s Mexican Grill on 4 Avenue S.W., experienced a long closure before, during June 2013’s flood.

He says the power outage has cost him at least $5,000 in lost revenue and spoiled goods.

“Downtown, you depend on the corporate crowd to come into your business. If you don’t have a corporate crowd, we have no business whatsoever and it’s tough. It’s tough,” he says.

ENMAX is confident that the power will be turned back on midday Thursday, but Hernandez says that he and many other owners will need an additional day to prepare their locations to open to the public.

That means another day of lost revenue.

Calgary’s Chamber of Commerce says it’s still way too early to determine the actual cost of the outage to local businesses.

Lee Rogers, an insurance broker, says that business interruption service would cover some of the losses inflicted by the outage, but not every type of company has that type of coverage.

Hotels and restaurants are the most likely to have it, followed by retail services. Professional services are the least likely to have the coverage, and those companies may need to pay specific riders to cover for specific events.

“Things like off premises power outages, civil authority, extra expense, contingent business interruption coverage and those are all extensions that can be bought in conjunction with buying business interruption itself,” Rogers says.

Workers are also protected during these types of interruption events, but it also depends on what kind of worker they are.

Rogers says salaried employees likely have coverage through their company for lost wages, while for hourly workers, it depends on if the company has bought “ordinary payroll coverage”.

As for the cost of repairs the city needs to make, a power industry analyst told CTV that the cost of replacing lines is somewhere in the range of $525,000 and the cost of housing displaced residents will be about $161,000.

Shaw Cable says it’s already spent $686,000 trying to restore services in the area.