Generators give majority of homes power in Taupo Plains

Unison Networks has advised by the end of today the majority of homes in the Taupo Plains would have power, through network or localised generation.

Relationship manager Danny Gough said "our priority has been to get homes with families back with power, and we are glad through the use of generators, that is now the case".

"Already a significant number of homes are running off localised generators.

"A lot of sites, which make up our total customer connection points, include a number of less critical sites like some pumps and seasonal properties, so our attention was focused on where it mattered most - on people."

He said today Unison's crews would be working on re-livening Unison's 11kV network along Taharua Road, which would see a cluster of customers supplied by an 800kVA network generator.

Over the weekend, the crews would be focused on connecting clusters of customers along Matea Road and along State Highway 5 near the Rangitaiki Tavern through network generators as well.

"We will continue to do this for clusters of customers where access allows, so those customers don't need to rely on localised generation while repairs to our network are underway."

He said full restoration to the damaged network would be a sustained effort so it was pleasing to know most homes would have power, supplied by generators, while repair work continued.

"We will throw all we can at it, but the damage is significant and it will take time.

"As we work through repairs, customers will however be progressively restored to full network supply."