The flooded interior of the Redclyffe substation near Taradale, after Transpower crews were able to gain access to it late Wednesday. Photo / Transpower NZ
The flooded interior of the Redclyffe substation near Taradale, after Transpower crews were able to gain access to it late Wednesday. Photo / Transpower NZ
Unison has asked reconnected Hawke’s Bay customers to conserve power as teams continue restoration efforts for tens of thousands across the region.
Unison restored power to 39,400 customers by Thursday afternoon since Cyclone Gabrielle hit on Monday night, cutting power to around 77,000 homes across Hawke’s Bay, Taupo andRotorua.
On Thursday afternoon, 37,548 homes remained without power in Hawke’s Bay, 31,527 in Napier which was affected by a loss of supply from Transpower’s Redclyffe substation after floodwaters rushed through the entire facility.
According to Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, the initial assessment indicated that there was extensive damage after flood waters reached heights exceeding 1.5 metres inside the control room.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council said the power outage in Napier was expected to last for at least two weeks.
Eastland Network is also advising people to conserve power as 4500 of its customers across Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay remain without power, including more than 1600 in Wairoa.
”The Gisborne city area and parts of Wairoa have power. Ruatoria, Te Araroa, Tokomaru Bay and Tolaga Bay townships, and Mahia, are running on generators,” a post by Eastland Network on Facebook said.
They are advising people to treat lines as live at all times following reports of people using chainsaws and vehicles to clear trees and roads where powerlines are down.
“This is a serious risk to your safety – keep well clear,” the post said.
”We’ll post updates on our FB page, and encourage everyone to follow the local Civil Defence pages and listen to the news.”
Detail from an aerial shot of the flooded Redclyffe substation. Photo / Supplied
Centralines confirmed on Thursday afternoon that 5,600 customers in Central Hawke’s Bay have had their power restored since the cyclone hit on Monday night, and less than 290 households remain without power.
Danny Gough, Unison and Centralines Relationship Manager, stressed that all Hawke’s Bay customers now reconnected to the network should conserve power where possible.
“We can’t stress this enough as a genuine plea for people to look at every opportunity to save power - from turning off air-conditioning and devices on standby, to being mindful with the lights and any high consumption devices.
“This will help to manage and distribute the limited supply we do have coming into the region from Transpower.”
Unison was able to provide power to some key locations in central Napier and was working with Transpower on an emergency solution to bypass Redclyffe through to Transpower’s Whakatu substation to enable the remaining parts of Hastings urban areas to be restored and begin the process of restoring parts of Napier.
Unison is asking customers to disregard estimated times for power to be restored on the outages page on their website, as the times are based on normal working conditions and not unprecedented cyclone damage.
Centralines customers are advised to visit www.centralines.co.nz/outages for real-time information on outages in the first instance.
They can also phone 0800 NO POWER (0800 667 693), but Centralines advised they are experiencing very high call volumes.
