Animates Whangārei staff first experienced the outage at 11am this morning as acting manager Ashaia Muriwai, pictured with her dog Athena, was serving a customer. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Parts of Northland were plunged into darkness yesterday after a 220 kV transmission tower fell unexpectedly, in a field near Glorit.
Transpower launched an investigation and by late yesterday afternoon, Transpower technicians restored power, through its lower 110kV network, to parts of central Whangārei, like Raumanga, Kensington and some parts of the Far North being restored.
Transpower issued an operational Grid Emergency Notice, which gave a timeframe for the emergency to noon as an interim period.
A spokesperson said the grid emergency notice would have no impact on the rest of the country but would enable operational changes so Transpower, Northpower and Top Energy could work together to restore power.
Northpower spokeswoman Rachel Wansbone said the power failure left nearly 100,000 customers without electricity and in an update yesterday evening she said most people would have the power back on.
“We’ve had more power supplied from Transpower NZ which means most people will have power restored over the next two hours. However, the power available is much less than we would normally have at this time of the evening.”
The region lost power about 11am after a tower fell, south of Wellsford, while a second transmission circuit supplying these areas was out of service for scheduled maintenance.
Energy Minister Simeon Brown said Transpower had advised him they would be able to restore two-thirds of the electricity supply to Northland by yesterday evening. Full power would not be restored until tonight “at the earliest”, he said.
He could not say what had caused the pylon to fall.
“There will obviously be an investigation into the incident and what caused it, but the priority at the moment is making sure power is restored as quickly as possible, vulnerable people who rely on electricity are looked after, and working with the EBDs [Electricity Distribution Businesses] around how that power will be managed as they work through restoring power.”
He said it was a concern that such an incident took out power to an entire region.
“They were working on the site at the time, there was maintenance happening at the site but there will be an investigation to understand exactly what happened.”
Northland mayoral forum leader Vince Cocurullo called for the power to be returned immediately and said he didn’t want the issue to become “another Brynderwyns”.
Cocurullo said the power outage would have widespread consequences and would also have significant economic impacts for many.
Many business owners were among those affected by the outage. While some saw food being spoiled, others resorted to creative means to keep customers happy.
Yini Lan from Kerikeri Lunchbox Bakery said customers were transferring money online or writing their names and phone numbers in her book and returning later to pay. She filled at least three pages of IOUs.
“This is how I deal with it. I’m definitely affected but I’ve been here quite long, so I know the majority of customers. It’s better to feed them.”
Animates Whangārei staff first experienced the outage at 11am as acting manager Ashaia Muriwai was serving a customer. As they went to pay the power went out, she said. Staff were in good spirits when the Advocate visited thanks to the company of Muriwai’s dog, Athena.
At Whangārei cafe Hello Pickle, workers Fynlee Connew and Ash Tadman were doing a deep clean with head torches on, as well as serving customers.
Owner Jess Loftus said customers were paying with cash or bank transfer, while some regulars had been given credit and could pay the next time they come in.
Loftus said she was trying to make the most of a situation she can’t control.
“It’s cool to see the community banding together. I could see people helping the elderly cross the street … everyone is driving so courteously and so aware, imagine if we operated like this all the time,” she said. Loftus said the loss of trade was “a bit stressful” but the cafe was well supported by regular customers.
“We felt that through Cyclone Gabrielle and Covid, through times of unexpected spot problems, it’s nice to see everyone coming together.”
Owner of Village Cafe in Kerikeri, Abby Semb, said she had to close the cafe.
“It’s frustrating. I’ve got an oven full of half-cooked food for a catering job. As long as we get power later today, I won’t lose all my stock.”
Chris De-Ath from Bocky Boo Gelato said the power was restored in central Whangārei just in time to save his gelato icecream from spoiling.
Staff packed the freezer with pillows to help the cold stay in. De-Ath said the power cut was the last thing the business needed.
Cellini’s icecream and espresso shop owner Richard Holt said his entire stock of icecream had melted - $5000 to $6000 worth of stock. He was resigned to the situation.
“It’s shocking but I’ve got used to it. It is what it is in Northland.”
Holt said he had a back-up generator but couldn’t get to the service station on time before it too shut due to the power outage. It will be another two to three days before he can restock.
“We won’t be open tomorrow. Some shops might be able to reopen when the power goes out, but that’s not the same for food service.”
Cafe Jerusalem was also having to turn away customers. Front-of-house staffer Michaela Surovcova said staff were waiting for the manager and cleaning to keep busy.
Jarred Meehan from Churchill Butchers and his team were serving customers in the dark with mobile eftpos.
He was waiting on a generator, thinking “we’ll be up and running again”. However, the shop’s machines couldn’t be used with the generator “so some of the boys will be going home”, he said.
Whangārei District Council said the major power outage affected many public services including traffic lights which had shut down.
“If you are driving, use normal give-way rules at intersections. There is also extra congestion, please take your time and be safe.”
At the intersection of Walton and Cameron Sts, police Detective Sergeant Dave Whitecliff-Davies was seen controlling traffic.
Northland MP Grant McCallum said it was “devastating news” for Northland and urged people to keep in touch with their power providers and watch for updates on when the power might be restored.
McCallum said Transpower told him they were working to get power restored as soon as possible.
“It highlights how fragile the infrastructure in Northland is, which is something we are very focused on strengthening.
“The people of Northland have been through a lot with storms and road closures. This is the last thing they needed,” he said.
Whangārei District Council advised people to conserve water as much as possible because after the power outage, the water supply network was operating at a reduced capacity.
Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson said the region was vulnerable when these events happened.
“I think we’re pretty hard-bitten when things like this happen that we don’t expect.”
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania said the widespread outage showed the importance of “ensuring our connectivity is resilient”.
“Hopefully we can get that transmission line is back up and join us back up to the main grid. It’s not good enough for our entire region to be dependent on a single line.
“Especially when our power prices in this region are the highest in the country.”
Tepania advised residents to conserve water and limit flushing the toilet, as many were on tank water. He also suggested having torches and candles handy in case the outage lasted into the night. “Hopefully that won’t be required.”
Some early childhood centres and schools across Northland asked students to be picked up as the outage continued to impact toilet usage and phone lines.
Schools were also affected: Whangārei Girls’ High School asked parents to collect their children early and Open Spaced Preschool was forced to close early as staff were unable to maintain a suitable temperature in the centre and they had no running water.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said Civil Defence and emergency management in Northland were monitoring the situation and ready to mobilise if it was required. He said he had not yet had any reports of people in trouble as a result of the power outage. He did not know how the pylon had fallen over, but said it did raise questions about the resilience of the infrastructure.
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