Power largely restored after Central Otago outage this morning

Electricity has largely been restored in Central Otago after more than 8000 customers were left without power in a widespread outage this morning.

At 11.55am, Aurora Energy’s outages website was showing power still out in parts of Clyde, along with Omakau and Millers Flat.

The cut, which started just after 9am, affected about 1030 customers around Clyde and 6949 around Alexandra, Aurora communications manager Lisa Gloag said.

Areas affected included Alexandra, Clyde, Cromwell Gorge, Fruitlands, Ida Valley, Omakau, Ophir, Roxburgh and St Bathans.

Alexandra Senior Citizens prepares for its lunch despite the power cut. Photo / Ruby Shaw

Contact head of hydro generation Boyd Brinsdon said rumours were not true that an interruption of the feed from Clyde Dam caused the outage.

Alexandra Senior Citizens holds a monthly lunch meeting, which is going ahead despite the outage.

Co-ordinator Jo Ireland said she hoped people would still attend. “If they turn up, they’ll be fed.”

The power outage meant some substitutions would have to be made and lunch-goers could expect cold meat, pickles and bread.

“We can only do what we can do,” Ireland said.