UPDATE 10AM: Power has returned to Central Queensland homes and businesses following a region wide outage on Tuesday morning. Ergon Energy has removed its power outage alert covering parts of the Central Highlands, although the cause of the outage remains uncertain. INITIAL 9.21AM: Nearly 10,000 Ergon Energy customers are without power across Central Queensland communities due to an outage. Ergon Energy’s outage finder shows 9020 customers in the Emerald area lost power just before 8.30am Monday. Areas impacted include Anakie, Bogantungan, Capella, Emerald, Fernlees, Gindie, Rubyvale, Sapphire, Springsure, The Gemfields, Willows Gemfields and Wyuna. The outage is also impacting a further 135 customers in nearby Comet, Duaringa and Yamala.