Lines company pulls 85 workers off pylon job

The 85 workers had been removing high-voltage power lines from a damaged pylon teetering on the edge of a cliff and transferring them to new poles. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Far North lines company Top Energy has discharged its 85 workers at Mangamuka and restored power to 10,000 homes four hours ahead of schedule.

The workers had been removing high-voltage power lines from a damaged pylon teetering on the edge of a cliff and transferring them to new poles.

A spokesperson for Top Energy said the company wanted to restore the power earlier than the previous deadline of 5pm today, given the unknown effects of Cyclone Pam, which is now beginning to whip across the Far North.

The pylon, which was damaged by a 100m-long slip triggered by heavy rain in December, was in the rugged Mangamuka Ranges just north of the point where State Highway 1 crosses the Mangamuka River.

It carried the 110,000 volt cables, which were Kaitaia's only source of power.
"Power is back and running Kaitaia," he said.

He said the 85 workers were scheduled to complete non-essential maintenance work which Top Energy had decided to postpone for today.

The essential work, which had been planned for today involved moving the high voltage electricity lines supplying Kaitaia from the damaged pylon to a new replacement pylon.
This work has been completed successfully.

"There are no further outages planned - it's not ideal working conditions and we want to make sure power is up and running for customers before the weather gets any worse."

Customers in the east coast had expected a one hour outage from 5pm today also but Top Energy would not be carrying out the work today that was due to cause that outage.

"As of 2pm, Top Energy has not recorded any faults in the network. If anyone is still without power - let us know," he said.