Kaitāia businesses in scramble for generators when Northland power went off

By Lucy Xia of RNZ

Residents and business owners in Kaitāia have described the mad scramble for generators when the town was plunged into darkness on Thursday.

Frustrated that Northland’s infrastructure failed them yet again, some said it was the latest in a series of misfortunes including Covid-19 and Cyclone Gabrielle.

When the lights went out at Gecko Cafe in central Kaitāia, the first thought for owner Helen Munro was her food stock.

She was told it could take a couple of days for the power to return, plenty of time for her perishables to perish.

“All our refrigeration ... we can’t last 48 hours without power or the food will go off in the freezers,” she said.

Munro and her husband Don tried to hire a generator, but they had been booked out. Instead, they paid $1500 for a new one.

The power came back in Kaitāia late on Thursday, but one cafe owner says it was uncertain whether it would still be on this morning – fortunately it was. Photo / Nick Monro, RNZ

Power came back at about 6.30pm, but their coffee machine did not survive the surge.

“Something happened with the power coming back on ... the coffee machine is down,” she said.

On Friday morning the couple was busy setting up a back-up coffee machine. Without a way to give their customers a caffeine fix after a stressful 24 hours, they expected to lose two-thirds of the day’s business.

Munro said Gecko Cafe’s revenue was 45% down compared to pre-Covid, impacted by lockdowns, cyclones and the closure of State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge.

“It’s just one thing after another, it’s almost like we’re forgotten up here,” she said.

“Who else goes without their major road for over two years?”

Another café owner across the street, Levana Sietses, felt the same way.

“It’s frustrating because the Far North is definitely very restricted and cut off from a lot of things, so when something like this happens it does affect the businesses a lot,” she said.

“Because we’re a small town we really need to try to make as much money as we can in the time we’ve got.”

Power was out to Kaitāia for some time on Thursday after a large high voltage pylon fell, cutting supply to Northland. Photo / Nick Monro, RNZ

Meanwhile, Northlanders were warned further outages could be possible and were asked to conserve power as crews worked to restore the fallen tower.

Sietses said that while power came on at about 4pm on Thursday, she was uncertain if that would last.

“I definitely came to work this morning not knowing if we would have power to open the shop, luckily we did,” she said.

“Everyone is restricted in their power use now.”

Some rural residents, such as Amy Dow, were hit especially hard. She said she felt stranded.

“Because we live so far out of Kaitāia ... cellphones, they don’t work for us,” she said.

“If we have an emergency, what do we do? We have no phone to call.”

Others were in disbelief at the vulnerability of Northland’s infrastructure.

“It’s a bit surprising isn’t it ... I didn’t think the supply was so vulnerable that one tower going down [meant] the whole of Northland’s out,” one resident said.

Northland residents were warned on Thursday to unplug small appliances which could be damaged by electrical surges once the power came back on. Photo / Nick Monro, RNZ

Someone has to own up for mistake - Chamber of Commerce

Northland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Darryn Fisher told RNZ’s Checkpoint: “It’s been a tough couple of years, particularly the last six months with the closure of the Bryndewyns and the fragile nature of our infrastructure here in Northland.

“We’re starting to feel like a bit of a Third World country up here.”

He said he agreed with ministers who described the event as “completely unacceptable” and he appreciated the local power lines companies reacting quickly.

“Something as simple as reliable infrastructure, whether it be a road or a power line, is a pretty reasonable thing to request and this has been brought up. The fragility of our power is not a new proposition to Transpower, it’s been known for years.

“It’s been highlighted for a long time, yet here we are,” he said.

Fisher said after speaking to a number of businesses, he believed about $40 million had been lost.

“I know that this issue goes much further south than from Whangārei, so it goes to Snells Beach, Warkworth and Wellsford, the whole area. I don’t think there would be any hesitation of us doubling that number, and that’s just on one day’s trading,” he said.

He said Northland will be on limited trading for at least Friday and over the weekend.

“I think to throw a number like $80m at it is not unreasonable.”

Fisher said Northland alone had a $10 billion economy and had the lowest GDP per capita in New Zealand.

“If you just divide the $10b by working days, you’re already at about $40m a day.”

He said compensation had to be on the table with the average business in Northland being anywhere from 30 to 45% down in revenue due to the Bryndewyns being closed.

“Someone’s got to come to the party and own up to the mistake and provide compensation for businesses in Northland,” he said.

“Why not? I mean, they’ve had to throw out stock, they’ve had to pay their staff, they’ve had to pay their overheads of leasing their buildings and all the equipment.”

Fisher said Transpower had told him there would be a full investigation.

“I was really pleased to hear that the minister said that there was going to be a full line investigation by the Energy Authority as well,” he said.

He said that he would expect by Monday that Northland residents and businesses will have some clarity.

“I guess there’s no point now looking backwards, the damage is done. We need the temporary solution back in place so that we can have full power,” he said.

“Our major employers, major businesses up here like Fonterra, Golden Bay Cement and our timber mills. They’re all still closed. I mean, they have to close to allow the available power to go out to the residential communities, schools and hospitals just to keep them powered up. So you know this is going to go on for another few days yet.”

Fisher said of Transpower’s response: “I think they’ve reacted as best they can in a bad situation.”

He said North Power and Top Energy had told him Transpower “mobilised teams as quickly as they could to to rectify the situation”.

“You’ve got to applaud people for getting on and fixing things as quickly as possible, but really, it sounds to me like this incident could have been avoided and we’re just lucky that if it weren’t for Top Energy and North Power, there would have been a lot of cold, wet people last night.”