Rural town's power outrage

Angry Paengaroa residents will confront Powerco's chief executive next week about a string of power cuts plaguing their area.
Power losses are a regular feature of life in the rural community but in the past few weeks the situation has deteriorated and they are not prepared to put up with them any longer.
Western Bay of Plenty District Council Mayor Graeme Weld said he has been swamped with calls from people and has organised a meeting next week where they may confront Powerco chief executive Richard Krogh with their gripes.
Mr Weld said if assurances were not made next week that the power cuts were going to stop he would organise an open public meeting which he predicted would attract hundreds of people.
"We are all pretty fed up about it all ... it has got my back up. We have major packhouses, dairy farms and freezing works lose power which is incredibly inconvenient and in some cases is disastrous.
"It can also play havoc with your electrical appliances. The power has been flicking on and off for the past six weeks _ you just do not know when it is going to happen."
The news of the meeting comes just days after the district suffered its latest flurry of outages that left residents and businesses without power for Sunday afternoon and into Monday morning.
Mobil Paengaroa Autoworld owner Allen Wilson said each time the power was cut to the district, he was unable to operate.
"Everything goes down, the fridges, eftpos and people can't even buy petrol. We just have to wait and hope the power comes back on."
Mr Wilson, who has run the station for nine years, said he had given up relying on his power supply.
"Power can go out and be out for any length of time."
The supply cuts were hitting that frequently Mr Wilson had recently invested in a generator.
"That way when a power cut hits I can still operate."
Powerco Network Operations manager Ross Dixon said a detailed survey of the Paengaroa network had been commissioned to address the recent outages.
"Over the past 10 months there have been a higher number of outages affecting this area than expected. Two of the largest outages were the result of Transpower grid emergencies where the network which supplied Powerco's network was unable to maintain supply, which resulted in large sections of Powerco's network being blacked out."
Other power cuts were blamed on high winds, tree damage and "possums coming into contact with overhead lines".
Since buying the electricity network in 2002, Powerco had lifted the network expenditure in the Western Bay significantly, he said.
"We have a project team focused on improving network performance both in the short and medium term."
Power problems have also struck tourist hotspot Longridge Fun Park. Owner Geoff Brown said outages regularly crept into his working day.
Just the other week the power went off as a ``bus load of 40 people'' arrived.