Gisborne and Hawke's Bay could be without power for 'weeks', Transpower warns

Tuesday, 14 February 2023

Transpower has issued a dire warning for Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

Transpower is warning that people in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay should be prepared to be without power for “days to weeks, rather than hours”.

The national operator has declared a grid emergency in the region following a loss of electricity to the region.

Transpower said the outage was the result of flooding at its Redclyffe substation.

It said it had lost communications with the substation which it believed was probably now underwater.

Flooding at the end of Northshore Rd in Whirinaki, Napier.

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“While we cannot currently access the site, we have a helicopter on standby for further investigation when possible,” it said in a statement shortly after 11am.

“Until we are able to gain access to the substation we will not have a clear picture of how long the region will be without power, but we are advising that the community should be prepared to be without power for days to weeks, rather than hours.”

It is understood that Transpower has been considering whether it could use power from Genesis Energy’s 50-megawatt Tuia hydroelectric power station on Lake Waikaremoana to bypass the Redclyffe substation and restore some power to the region, but that it remains largely in the dark about the condition of infrastructure in the area.

Transpower spokesperson Anna Smaill said the Redclyffe substation was a “crucial” piece of infrastructure that fed power into the region.

“At the moment we don’t have access to it and it is very difficult to get visibility on it.”

Smaill could not immediately confirm the number of people without power but said the outage was affecting both Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

Transpower had decided it should put out the warning that people might need to be without power for days or weeks, rather than potentially having to upgrade its warning later, she said.

She was unable to comment immediately on whether Transpower had any contingencies it could put in place to manage the situation, saying it was an “unfolding situation and very early days”.

Hastings-based lines company Unison said the outage was affecting its customers in “most of Napier and parts of Hastings”.

It said on its Facebook page that Transpower’s warning wasn't the news that people would be wanting to hear, but Unison was doing all it could to work alongside Transpower to understand the situation and support it to restore power to its network as soon as possible.

Transpower said the network operated by Gisborne-based lines company Eastland Group was also down.

At lunchtime on Tuesday Eastland was not carrying any information about the situation on its website, which last appeared to have been updated shortly after midnight.