Tens of thousands still without power on Wednesday, as reconnection begins

Wednesday, 15 February 2023

McAnulty talked to Stuff as more people were evacuated overnight.

People without power across the North Island continue to be a concern for authorities, as the full extent of the damage brought by Cyclone Gabrielle remains to be seen.

During a morning update, Emergency Minister Kieran McAnulty said 144,000 people were still without power, which was an improvement if compared to the “roughly 225,000 people without power yesterday”.

“But is still a hell of a lot of people that don’t have power”, McAnulty said.

As Cyclone Gabrielle swept through the North Island on Monday and Tuesday, the damage caused to the power networks was the largest ever done since Cyclone Bola.

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With powerlines down across multiple regions, getting power to people remains one of the most pressing tasks.

“Most of Gisborne has power now, which is going to make a massive difference.

“Hopefully, that means they will be able to regain communications,” McAnulty said.

Although this was “encouraging news”, there was still a lot to do, he said.

Flooding remains in low-lying areas in Hawke’s Bay on Wednesday and waterways are still high.

“What is of concern is there are still areas that don’t have power, there are still areas that don't have communications.”

On Tuesday, most of the power companies operating the electric networks in the North Island reported damages caused by floods, landslips, or trees falling on powerlines.

In a press release, Counties Energy spokesperson Jodine Laing said the company has seen through the worst of Cyclone Gabrielle.

“We currently have around 2000 properties without power in our region,” Laing said on Wednesday morning.

Counties Energy crews will have a “huge job of restoring a severely damaged electricity network” on Wednesday, after being stood down for security reasons on Tuesday night.

“Our priority sites are those customers on the Āwhitu Peninsula who have now had two nights without power.

”Due to the sheer number of faults –some of the outages on the network may still be prolonged. The network has sustained massive damage and there are no quick fixes when dealing with electricity, unstable ground and massive storm damage,” she said.

Vector, the network company operating in Auckland, reported similar problems on Wednesday morning.

Police evacuating residents via boat from around Meeanee, Hawke's Bay.

Vector spokesperson Sophie Coley said in a press release 30,000 people were without power across the Auckland region as of 8am.

“The significant damage to electricity networks across the North Island, including the Auckland region, will take time to repair and some people, particularly in more rural areas, should expect to be without power for several days.”

After declaring a Grid Emergency on Tuesday afternoon, Transpower managed to restore some power to parts of Hawkes Bay and Gisborne.

In a press release, a Transpower spokesperson said they have bypassed the flood-damaged Redclyffe power station near Napier, which supplied local companies Unison Networks and Eastland.

“Unison has been able to reconfigure its network to reconnect homes and businesses and is currently taking 27 MW from the grid, which is roughly enough to power 27,000 homes.

“Eastland is taking 23 MW, up from 10 MW at our last update yesterday,” they said.

The electricity has been coming from another power station near Fernhill and will power properties in the Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Wairoa.

On Wednesday morning, there were 12,601 customers without power across Powerco’s network, spread across Coromandel, Taranaki, South Waikato, Wairarapa, Bay of Plenty, Whanganui and Manawatū.

In a press release, Powerco head of network operations Caz Haydon said many 'faults are decreasing, with our focus on restoring power to the larger outages, which are being assessed for restoration and repair across all regions as a priority.

“Helicopter patrols will be used to assist restoration today, including assessing faults in Taranaki, Tinui and Tairua – the latter of which accounts for around 6000 customers currently without power,” Haydon said.

In a Facebook post, Top Energy said work could be done to repair the network thanks to the clear weather on Wednesday morning.

“We currently have around 6000 customers without power,” the company operating in Northland said.

“Crews are back out, and we are grateful to have the extra hands of Scanpower and other contractors helping to repair damaged equipment – fallen poles, broken lines, transformers and flooded substations. We are heading to Pukenui this morning where 1000 customers are without power.”